*SVO, CB retain documents despite completion of enquiries
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 4: In a glaring instance of mismanagement in safeguarding the revenue record, vital documents of huge chunk of land of a village situated few kilometers away from the capital city of Jammu were found from the house of a Patwari nearly six years after his death.
Interestingly, the record reached the relevant quarters not because of any effort by the field level officials of the Revenue Department but due to the magnanimity of deceased Patwari’s wife, who voluntarily submitted a bag full of documents to the office of Regional Director, Land Records and Surveys, Jammu.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Patwari of Baran Halqa near Bhalwal in the outskirts of Jammu city namely Jagdish Singh died in the month of July 2010 and the vital record of huge chunk of land of village Kangrail remained in his house since then.
Though a number of Patwaris were posted in this Halqa since July 2010 but none of them ever tried to prepare catalog which could have helped in detection of misplacement of record and subsequent recovery from the house of deceased Patwari. In the absence of record how much difficulties the people of the area could have faced during these years can be easily gauged.
The mismanagement in safeguarding the revenue record surfaced few days back when wife of deceased Patwari suddenly appeared in the office of Regional Director, Land Records and Surveys and handed over a huge bag containing documents. She simply told the officers that these documents were lying in one of the corners of the house since the death of her husband and might be of some use for the Revenue Department.
Following detailed scrutiny of the documents, it came to the fore that the record pertains to Girdawari of Khasra Number 1 to 783, Jamabandi of 1962 to 1967 and Masavi Latha of 1957 and 1958 besides Roznamcha of the period between July 2004 and July 2008.
“The recovery of land record of huge chunk of land that too nearly six years after the death of Patwari clearly indicates that safeguarding of revenue record is no priority for the field level officials of the department”, sources said, adding “why the Patwaris posted in Baran Halqa since 2010 never tried to maintain catalog of the record remains a million dollar question. Moreover, there is a question mark on the performance of senior officers like concerned Naib Tehsildar and Tehsildar as they too laid no focus on preservation of record”.
“This instance has also brought to the fore vital questions as to why the Patwaris and other field level functionaries are allowed to keep the official record in their houses instead of placing the same in the Patwar Khanas”, sources said.
Not ruling out possibility of large number of Patwaris in different parts of the State keeping the official record in their houses, sources said, “the mismanagement in safeguarding the revenue record is notwithstanding the fact that complaints about tampering and destruction of record are being received continuously from different corners of the State”.
“Mismanagement is also linked with encroachments on State land as proper preservation can play vital role in thwarting the attempts of the land grabbers, who generally thrive either due to misplacement of record or due to its tampering in connivance with the field level functionaries of the Revenue Department”, they further said.
Stating that Patwaris were never made accountable for preservation and safeguarding of the record, sources said, “there are numerous instances where land record taken by the State Vigilance Organization and Crime Branch for investigation purposes without any proper official communications never reached back to the Revenue Department”.
“Neither these investigating agencies return the record to the Revenue Department on their own nor the field functionaries of Revenue Department consider taking back record as part of their official duty”, sources further said while holding the top brass of the Revenue Department responsible for prevailing mess vis-à-vis safeguarding of the record.
“This aspect was never pondered upon seriously and no guidelines or specific directions were issued to the field functionaries of the Revenue Department in this regard” sources added.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh said that an enquiry shall be instituted to ascertain as to how the present Patwari was functioning without having such vital record with him and what steps he had taken to trace the missing record if the same was not handed over to him by his predecessor.
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