Div Com orders FIR in major land scam
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Nov 5: In what can turn out to be major land scam, several vital public documents (Latha and Massavi) of the Revenue villages Chowadhi and Sunjwan in tehsil Bahu of Jammu district have been missing from concerned patwars as well as General Record Room, Gole Gujral, Jammu.
In addition to Latha and Massavi (Revenue maps), the Book of Record of Rights (Missal-i-Haqiyat) is also missing from the Record Room and the specific pages of the field book were also found missing, forcing the Divisional Commissioner Jammu Dr Raghav Langer to order lodging of an FIR in the case.
Sources in Revenue Department told EXCELSIOR that missing of these vital public documents came into fore after the Divisional Commissioner Jammu in June 2021 constituted teams for random verification, ETS survey of encroachment of State/ Kahcharai/ Forest lands in these Revenue villages with instructions for the reconciliation of Revenue records. They said that the committee in its findings brought to the notice of Divisional Commissioner that Latha and Massavi (revenue maps) of village Chowadhi and Sunjwan, in tehsil Bahu, have been missing.
Further, sources told that a demarcation committee constituted by the Divisional Commissioner office in April 2021, recently submitted its preliminary report to the office of Divisional Commissioner Jammu in which it brought out glaring revelations that the Aks Latha/Massavi of village Sunjwan and Chowadhi are missing from the General Record Room, Gol Gujral Jammu as well. Not only the maps, but also the Book of Record of Rights (Missal-i-Haqiyat) is also missing from the Record Room and specific pages of the field book were found missing.
Sources said that taking strong cognizance of missing of vital public documents of the Revenue villages Sunjwan and Chowadhi in tehsil Bahu, the Divisional Commissioner Jammu has directed Sub Divisional Magistrate, Jammu South to immediately lodge FIR under the relevant provisions of IPC and other regulations in the concerned police station so that an investigation can be immediately initiated and the accused can be booked under law.
It has been learnt from the sources that the Divisional Commissioner office has sought an explanation from the concerned tehsildar as to how Fard-i-Intikhabs for these Revenue villages were being issued and mutations being attested in the absence of Latha and Massavi but no satisfactory reply could be provided.
As per the sources, the Divisional head of the Revenue Administration is specially irked at the fact as to why a First Information Report was not yet lodged vis-à-vis this serious matter of missing of vital revenue records and as to how the concerned Revenue offices were functioning till date in the absence of such documents.
On the conditions of anonymity, a revenue expert commented that this seems to be a well planned strategy as Latha/Massavi/ RoR are always prepared in two sets- with one complete set kept in safe custody in General Record Room and the other set is held by Halqa Patwari. He said a proper charge report is made whenever public documents are handed/taken over between the transferee and his reliever and as such the trail can be clearly established.
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