Sir,
This has reference to the news item’Govt sleeping over proposal to demystify language of revenue records since 2016′(DE, March20, 2019).It is a fact that the revenue record in our state contains cryptic, ununder- standable and archaic terms written in Urdu with Persian terminology,which even a well qualified person not having knowledge of urdu cannot understand, not to talk of an illiterate one.It is a common experience that when a person receives the copies/extract of the revenue record pertaining to the land owned , the record contains such complex terms as are not in common use and he has to remain at the goodwill and trust of the issuing authority.Unable to decipher and understand such archaic terms having been in use since centuries, many persons become victims of fraudsters.Moreover, a large number of officers, particularly of IAS Cadre belonging to Hindi speaking states having little knowledge of Urdu fail to understand the record in Urdu.
Even the local officers having little knowledge of Urdu find it difficult to understand the revenue terms, numbers and quantities written in complex language and not in Indo Arabic numerals howsoever hard they try to learn Urdu.As such, they find it difficult to dispose of the disputes promptly.As Urdu has lost its ground in most of the parts of Jammu Division over the last few years, it is not read by many people.Thus, the people, in general,can’t read the record of their own land, though they may have the copies of it.On the other hand, English is read and understood by a large number of people of our state. So the proposal submitted by the Administrative Department for demystifying the record and making it simple and understandable by printing the titles in various Revenue Registers in Urdu with translation in English way back in September 2016 is a step in the right direction and needs to be implemented in letter and spirit so that every person can understand it.It will also help in curbing corruption and fraud and settling disputes pertaining to revenue record of land.
Ashok Sharma,
Udhampur.
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