Enumeration of properties within the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits for uploading onto the Dharani portal could take much longer than expected, going by the experience so far.
Despite enlisting the services of thousands of GHMC employees, the survey in the city is proceeding at tardy pace, sources informed. Going by the progress, it could take up to two months’ time for completion of the survey.
Government has roped in more than 5,000 employees from the corporation’s various wings -- including Sanitation, Entomology, Town Planning, Revenue, and Engineering, for carrying out the property enumeration.
Reports came in that staff of the cadres ranging from data entry operators up to assistant engineers from the head quarters too have been asked to report to the zonal offices for one week, to be part of the field survey, while higher ranking officials have been deployed to monitor the mammoth task.
Despite the best of the efforts, the enumeration has been sluggish so far, and it is not yet clear if the employees would be retained on the duty for longer than a week’s time.
Estimates are that there could be around 24.5 lakh properties in the city, of which only 14.5 lakh properties are on the GHMC records.
Only about three lakh properties have been enumerated for the first 10 days, up to Saturday, though the employees have been made to work even on holidays.
Officials say that about 7% to 8% of the enumerated properties are new, as in they have not entered the property tax records so far.
Staff on the ground are facing issues ranging from suspicious property owners to technical glitches. On an average, about 30% of the employees are unable to log in due to software issues, sources informed.
Besides, the kind of details sought in the prescribed format, including Aadhaar number, caste, and details of family members are giving rise to suspicion that this exercise is linked to National Population Register (NPR)/ National Register of Citizens (NRC) by the Central government.
Staff roughed up
“We are facing tough situation in the old city, as people are not ready to trust us. A predominant majority have refused to part with the details, and a few employees on the duty have also been roughed up,” shared an employee.
The situation has only improved during the last two days, after corporators of the respective divisions have been taken into confidence to spread awareness and gain trust.
All pervasive scare of COVID-19 pandemic too is proving to be a hindrance. Resident welfare associations of several apartment complexes and gated communities have barred entry for the teams due to apprehensions about spread of the disease.
“Some of them, especially from gated communities, said they will upload the details online by themselves. We could convince a few, but majority of them would not budge,” said an official.