Though many a times delegation comprising prominent citizens of the affected villages visited the office of Deputy Commissioner Baramulla but their meeting proved futile.
Imtiyaz Wani
Hundreds of villagers who are forced to visit Tehsil and Revenue office Pattan to obtain land record from record keepers -Pathwaris have to return empty handed as their applications are never entertained due to absence of Patwaris.
At Tapper village located halfway between Srinagar and Baramulla on the national highway, the patwaris are always missing as the revenue office and land record keepers seldom visit the place to help villagers, especially after the office building was set ablaze years ago.
‘Nobody has seen their Pathwari since long. They don’t even bother to visit the villages for which they are drawing salaries,’’ says Abdul Rashid a resident of Tapper Payeem. Rashid had been looking for the patwaris from past two months as he needed to get his land record verified.
In 2010 Revenue building was set on blaze by unidentified people at Takiya Tapper since then government has not taken any interest in renovation of the building due to which villagers suffer on the daily basis.
‘The building is completely damaged and is in a mess and nobody is even trying to get it renovated. Had we voted people for this that they won’t even take care of the genuine problems of the local villagers,’ ’said a senior resident Mohammad Shaban of Tapper village. He claimed that villagers tried to flag this issue with senior officials but they didn’t try to redress the genuine grievance.
The revenue cell was established in 1997 and records of over 25 villages was kept their including the records of big villages like Takiya Tapper, Tapper Payeen , Tapperbala, Andergam, Hamray, Rengi, Bochoo, Check Tapper, Pusna. ‘In absence of patwari, villagers have to move from one office to another to check their records including some are forced to visit Srinagar,’’ said Mir.
Though many a times delegation comprising prominent citizens of the affected villages visited the office of Deputy Commissioner Baramulla but their meeting proved futile.
‘Officials are not taking us seriously for which all the people who come under the jurisdiction of Tapper and its adjacent areas are facing lot of problems. It is unfortunate the officials don’t guide us properly and never provide us proper format of our revenue records,’’ said Mohammad Akram Mir of Andergam.
Sarpanch Bashir Ahmad Mir said the J&K’s Rural Development department had constructed Panchayat Ghar in the village with a purpose officials will remain there to get issues resolved. ‘But after the office was gutted in fire the department didn’t try to renovate the building and passed the buck on other department,’’ he said even if patwaris are traced by the villagers for a simple document they take weeks. ‘’For us it is becoming a big issue.’’ He said even villagers are forced to provide conveyance to the patwaris for visiting the village. ‘Though government pays fat salaries to these record keepers, still they indulge in corruption,’’ blames Mohammad Jamal, another villager.
Tehsildar Pattan, Sayeed Faheem said that he recently took over the charge and have no knowledge about the reconstruction of the new building.
‘Nobody came to me about this problem and I don’t know where the Revenue Unit was constructed and what happened to it.’’’
He, however said that he will take this issue with the concerned officials and ask them why patwaris keep on moving from one place to another. ‘Land Record keepers have only two days for public purpose and four days for government purpose. We have to look for everything,’ he said while defending the patwaris.
