Primary duty of the Revenue Department is to prepare, preserve and maintain land record of the entire State. In revenue parlance it is called khasra girdawari or harvest inspection recording. Actually, the existing system was introduced by the Mughals when Kashmir passed into their control in around the closing years of 16th century. Revenue recording terms in use today like patwari, girdawar, tehsildar, khasra, patti, jamabandi etc, are all Persian words. Raja Todar Mal, the Revenue Minister of Akbar, was the person who got prepared the first ever complete land record of Kashmir. Towards the closing years of 19th century, Mr. Lawrence, the revenue expert of the British India Government in Punjab conducted second land re-arrangement project called bandobast to modernize the ownership and taxation process on agricultural produce. Therefore, the existing revenue system is a hundred and twenty seven year old system, which has undergone only marginal and not substantial change despite far reaching changes in the social and economic system of our country.
Actually, in the age of computer and information technology of very high order, the entire land record should have been digitalized and made perfect thereby eliminating any chance of tampering with the record and mismanaging things. One grave complaint that has been raging for many years is unauthorized encroachment and illegal possession of forest/state and other lands on a massive scale. The worst is that land grabbers who are well known to have clandestinely grabbed state land go unscathed. They manage to escape prosecution under the established law because firstly they are politically connected with influential segments of society and secondly and most importantly, they have managed to tamper with revenue records in connivance with revenue officers beginning from Patwari upwards.
Apart from this, Revenue officers who are supposed to make physical inspection of crops, cultivated areas, orchards, irrigation facilities and many more things related to agrarian pursuits of the villagers, twice a year, one in spring called rabi and one in harvesting called kharif are reported to be making entries into the revenue records while sitting in a guest house or in the house of some influential person. It has to be remembered that the entries made by a patwari and a girdawar with attestation by the Naib Tehsildar and Tehsildar is seldom challenged by a court of law. Such are the powers given to the revenue staff under Standing Order No.22 of the Revenue Department. Financial Commissioner Revenue had issued a detailed circular regarding conduct of girdawari. It was observed in 2011 that the field staff of the Revenue Department did not conduct harvest inspections (khasra girdawari) as per the provisions of Standing Order No.22. Consequently, Financial Commissioner Revenue had issued a detailed circular regarding conduct of Girdawari in which stress was laid that unauthorized possession over the State land will not be recorded by the Patwari concerned and he will not incorporate any change in the girdawari. But it is found that the field staff of the Revenue Department has not adhered to the direction conveyed to them officially and they continue making unwanted entries in the revenue record thereby making things more complicated for the Government. Financial Commissioner has taken very serious note of a situation in which the field officers of the Revenue Department are ignoring the instructions from higher authorities. He has asked all the Deputy Commissioners to ensure strict implementation of guidelines and personally supervise and monitor the harvest inspection (girdawari) as per Rule 3 of Standing Order No.22 and submit weekly reports to the office of Financial Commissioner Revenue. Changes made in the record will have to be verified by the entire hierarchy of the Revenue Department beginning from the Patwari up to the Deputy Commissioner.
We welcome this belated order because it is one positive way of checking illegal transfer of ownership of land and secondly it keeps the record updated for any further action. The aim is to break the nexus among the land grabbers and revenue field officers. Thousands of kanals of land are reported to be illegally seized by people and many of them have got it entered into their names in revenue records. There has to be a big drive of vacating illegal possession. The Revenue Department has to do the fundamental task of preparing, preserving and maintaining land record very meticulously. The Government should expedite the process of digitalizing of entire revenue record of the State.
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