Data upgradation pose a challenge for HMDA

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority's decision to migrate all of its data to the State Data Centre (SDC)'s servers to protect it from hackers has landed it in deep trouble. Authority officials are unable to open key files and the data is no longer compatible with the Development Permission Management System (DPMS), which is the sole mechanism used by the HMDA to accord permissions online.

The HMDA resumed online operations on August 17 after migrating its database to the SDC. Since then, officials have been facing major difficulties in trying to operate the system. They say that key files stored in the notepad cannot be opened due to their existing firewall settings. Citizens are equally annoyed because they're no longer able to submit applications online.

Highly placed sources in the HMDA confirm that complaints have been pouring in from citizens who not been able to register online for the e-auction of 95 plots of land, 67 of which belong to Uppal-Bhagat. Citizens have been told that they can register by logging on to www.hmda.gov.in and paying the registration fees, but their applications are not going through. In addition to this, online applications for building and layout permissions are also being rejected.

A senior HMDA official on condition of anonymity says that HMDA has been facing this issue since August 18, and it has been brought to the notice of the state IT Department. "Even though SDC provided a temporary fix that worked on Tuesday and Wednesday, the technical snag has resurfaced. The migration of the database has been troublesome not only to citizens but also to officials," he says, adding that the SDC has promised to come up with a permanent solution within a couple of days. The HMDA became concerned about hacking after receiving numerous complaints from citizens who'd applied for building and layout permissions and the regularisation of their lands under LRS. Over 10,000 applications were rejected, and the applicants brought it to the notice of the authorities that they were being denied access to certain features of the online portal.

When the authorities looked into the complaints, they found that their site has been hacked. A malware used by hackers crashed the DPMS as well as the operating systems of all computers used in the HMDA office. Even though the bugs were fixed, the authorities felt that it would be unsafe to maintain data on their servers, and so they shut down all online operations until August 17.