Haryana government identifies 370 patwaris in state, including 27 in Gurugram for corruption

Gurugram: The Haryana government has identified 370 patwaris, including 27 in Gururgam, who were found engaged in corruption and malpractices while doing official work and has asked the deputy commissioners of respective districts to take action against them. The government has also identified 170 private individuals hired by these patwaris, who allegedly worked on their behalf and acted as middlemen, a confidential report sent by the state revenue department on January 14 revealed.

Anurag Rastogi, additional chief secretary, revenue department, who sent the report to the deputy commissioners on Thursday asked them to take action and send the report to the government within 15 days.

“There are 370 patwaris posted in the Revenue Department. Out of these, 170 patwaris are kept as assistants. These patwaris engage in corruption in the name of dividing land accounts, measuring, transfer, correcting records and making maps etc. These patwaris harass the common people by repeatedly raising objections. Due to this, people are forced to pay them fees. It is directed that taking cognizance of the matter, strict action should be taken against such corrupt employees as per rules and ensure that the implementation report is sent to the government within 15 days,” the report sent by Rastogi to deputy commissioners across the state said.

The report has identified 27 patwaris in Gurugram, who were engaged in malpractices and it said that they have also hired 26 associates, who acted as middlemen. In neighbouring Faridabad, the report identified 19 patwaris but only three associates have been hired there. The highest number of corrupt patwaris have been identified by the report in Kaithal district which has 46 such patwaris while only seven middlemen have been identified there.

The report has identified malpractices in which these officials are engaged including the rates of money charged for work such as land registration, land demarcation, attestation of land record and work related to the girdawari (record of cultivation) among other thing. It also mentions the modus operandi adopted by these officials to harass the public, and seek undue charges from them.

According to the revenue department, there are around 1400 patwaris employed across Haryana and 55 patwaris are employed in Gururgam.

The Patwari and Kanoongo Association of Haryana, however, criticised the government for releasing such a report despite being confidential, alleging that the report is based on inputs from the state intelligence department and no departmental probe had been carried out. “The Patwari and Kanoongo Association stands against corruption and government must take action against malpractices but it should not be arbitrary. In the present case, no departmental enquiry has been carried out against the patwaris and no notices were issued to the 370 people named in the report. The government should have first conducted a proper probe before releasing the names. We oppose this action,” said Jaivir Chahal, state president of the association.

Satpal Yadav, district president of the Patwari and Kanoongo Association said that entire fraternity of the patwaris has been maligned by this report despite the fact that proper departmental enquiry was not conducted. “The patwaris have a lot of work but very less staff and this is the reason associates are hired. In Gurugram, the work has multiplied and people want work to happen quickly. What should we do? The report should have been kept confidential and property enquiry should have been initiated,” he said.