Announced 2 months back, departmental enquiry against erring officials yet to begin

Illegal entries, mutations of over 256 kanals of State land in Nagrota

Authorities fail to invoke J&K Civil Services Rules

Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 13: Announced exactly two months back, the departmental enquiry against the officials of Revenue Department, who were involved in illegal attestation of mutations of more than 256 kanals of State land in several villages of Nagrota tehsil, has yet not begun under J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956.
Vide Government Order No.161-Rev of 2018 dated September 14, 2018, the then Incharge Tehsildar Nagrota Rajesh Kumar, who was considered to be close confident of certain high profile politicians of Jammu, was placed under suspension pending enquiry into illegal attestation of mutations of State land and in terms of Rule 31 of J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956.
Similarly, three Patwaries namely Riaz Ahmed, Faquir Ahmed and Arvinder Singh were suspended by the present Deputy Commissioner Ramesh Kumar by way of separate order.
All these four officials of the Revenue Department were found actively involved in making illegal entries in the Revenue record and illegally attesting mutations of over 256 kanals of State land in the villages of Nagrota, Sitni, Khanpur, Jagti, Bamyal, Dung and Marh where the cost of the land has increased enormously during the past few years.
“However, despite lapse of two months departmental enquiry against these officials has not been set into motion for unknown reasons, which otherwise was imperative to ensure that action as per the J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules is taken against them”, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “even charge-sheet has not been served to the erring officials till date, which is the foremost step in any departmental enquiry”.
They further said, “delay in initiating departmental enquiry is notwithstanding the fact that timely action against these officials will act as deterrent for other field level functionaries of the Revenue Department, who are also hand in glove with the land mafia and watching their interests in other parts of Jammu”.
Moreover, the J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules clearly state that suspension order of an officer is bad if it is not followed by charge-sheet and enquiry within a reasonable time.
Elaborating the procedure followed in the departmental enquiry, sources said that on the receipt of reply from the concerned official to the charge-sheet the competent authority is supposed to appoint an enquiry officer and convey him specific time-frame for completion of the enquiry. It is only on the receipt of the findings of the enquiry officer that appropriate action is initiated against the accused officials.
When contacted, an officer of the Revenue Department confirmed that charge-sheet has not been served to the then Incharge Tehsildar Nagrota under J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956. “The exercise is on and foremost step will be initiated within next some days”, he added.
About other involved officials, he said that matter has been referred to the Financial Commissioner Revenue for further necessary action.
It is pertinent to mention here that the State High Court, in a Public Interest Litigation highlighting the issue of widespread encroachments on Jammu Development Authority (JDA) land in different parts of Jammu and Samba districts, had several months back directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Deputy Commissioner Jammu and Vice-Chairman of JDA, to start drive to retrieve encroached land on war footing basis.
When this exercise was started by JDA in Nagrota tehsil, it came to the fore that land mafia was continuing its illegal activities in connivance with the officials of Revenue Department.
Accordingly, the then Vice-Chairman of the JDA Rajesh Kumar Shavan prepared a detailed report mentioning that the land mafia has succeeded in getting illegal mutations attested in their favour in several villages of Nagrota.
However, for several months no action was taken on the report due to political intervention and thereafter the then Incharge Tehsildar of Nagrota Rajesh Kumar was merely shifted from the post, which was also challenged by him in the court of law.
“Later, the facts emerged during the enquiry conducted by the then Vice-Chairman of the JDA were shared with the then Deputy Commissioner Jammu Rajeev Ranjan for necessary action. Shockingly, Rajeev Ranjan slept over the issue for several months despite repeated communications from the Revenue Department”, sources said.
It was only during the Governor’s Rule that action against the ‘influential’ Incharge Tehsildar and other involved officials was taken.

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