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Nagpur: So you just bought the property, say agriculture land! Now get ready to face a mountain of tasks before you get it mutated in your name! District Collector Sachin Kurve may be patting himself and claiming that he has created a corruption free system in revenue department. However fact remains that unless the Revenue Inspector (RI) and the Patwari (A government official who keeps records regarding the ownership of land) are paid heavy bribes, one cannot get the land they have purchased mutated into their names.
In 2012, a resident of Saoner (Nagpur District) purchased a Gaothan land admeasuring 2.25 acres in Itangoti village, Adasa Road near Patansawangi Village.
Gaothan is residential area of a village in which local body i.e. Gram-Panchayat having authority to sanction Building Plans and permission. But, out of the existing gaothan or expande gaothan the all lands come under purview of Collector.
The buyer of the land had handed over all the relevant documents pertaining to this Gaothan Land to Patwari Bansole for mutating the land on his name. The Patwari had demanded a sum of Rs 1500/- for doing this job of mutating the land on his name. The buyer had also given the amount of Rs 1500/- to Patwari Bansole.
In order to fleece more money from the buyer of the land, Patwari Bansole and Revenue Inspector Harghode had not mutated the land in the name of the buyer for many months.
When the buyer continuously contacted the Revenue Inspector and the Patwari to know about the mutation, both of they changed the stance and in a stern voice asked the buyer to get permission from the Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) Saoner for getting the land mutated in his name.
The Buyer in-turn availed the services of a lawyer or advocate and through the Advocate appealed to the SDO for obtaining permission for getting the land mutated in his name. Incidentally, the SDO was so busy that without hearing, he put the case on pending list. After a few days, the SDO was transferred. This way a long time elapsed and his time and money was only wasted.
Meanwhile the buyer of the land came in contact with a person who is involved in the business of sale and purchase of land. The buyer related the entire episode to him. Incidentally, the Revenue Inspector Harghode happened to be a close acquaintance of that person. When that person spoke about this case to the Revenue Inspector Harghode, the Revenue Inspector Harghode is alleged to have demanded a sum of Rs 15,000/- (Rupees fifteen thousand) and the land will get easily mutated in the name of the buyer without any hitch. Since the buyer did not have the required amount of bribe of Rs 15,000/-, the mutation of the land in his name lay pending.
After a period of 6-7 month, when the buyer again showed interest in getting the land mutated, this time round, the Revenue Inspector Harghode agreed to do the job of mutation for a lesser bribe amount of Rs 10,000/- (Rupees ten Thousand). This time the buyer had approached the Patwari Bansole for getting the work done.
Once the buyer agreed to pay the bribe, Patwari Bansole filed the mutation through on-line format and late made a set of all the required documents and asked the buyer to just hand over the documents to Revenue Inspector Harghode.
Last Saturday, Revenue Inspector Harghode called the buyer to his office and after making the buyer wait for a long time, in an attempt to fleece a bigger amount from the buyer, quoted some rules and regulations and the problems the land faced, refused to mutate the land in his name. Last month the Collector had called all the parties to redress the grievances and provided toll free numbers to register the complaint and for resolving their grievances.
However when there are such types of Patwaris and Revenue Inspectors, how can anyone resolve their grievances? It is also a fact that the District Collector cannot leave his Chamber and go to check with every Revenue officials if the grievances are redressed, or the pending work completed and the public happy with the functioning of the revenue department. If this situation persists, how can the youth be attracted towards self employment or to pursue agriculture?
Now the only two options left with him.
a) One to pay a heavy bribe and get the work of Mutation done or
b) To approach the Anti-Corruption Department to get such corrupt revenue official caught.
Senior Revenue officials chose not to interfere
Left with no option, the buyer approached the newly elected Chairman of the Satranjipura Zone from BJP Praveen Bhisikar. Praveen Bhisikar in-turn spoke to his friend the District Collector and the Resident Collector and showed the relevant documents to him. Bhisikar went on to inform both the District Collector and the Resident Collector about the way the Patwari and the Revenue Inspector are trying to fleece the innocent buyers. However, both the bureaucrats took no initiatives to resolve the issue or even to punish the erring officials. This just means that their silence is encouraging the corrupt officials and discouraging new agriculturists.
– Rajeev Ranjan Kushwaha ( rajeev.nagpurtoday@gmail.com )
