Revenue document ‘missing’,DRO issued summons under RTI

Mandeep Singh,a resident of Rattowal village in Ludhiana district,had approached the SIC alleging that the masavi of Noor Bhaini village,which is a vital government document,was missing from the records of the District Revenue Office.

He had also alleged in his application that the patwari of Peerubanda area was not making available the shajra (another revenue document) of the village. Mandeep Singh had questioned the process of identifying the location of a particular

land and conducting mutations (in the absence of important documents). He had alleged that,as per his information,the misappropriation of property in the village was being done by deliberately detaching important documents from the records.

Mandeep Singh had further claimed in his application to the SIC that land was being sold and purchased illegally by ‘unauthorised’ persons by showing a wrong location of the khasra numbers. The complainant also urged the state panel to register a case against the officers concerned for destroying essential government documents.

Earlier,the case was disposed of on March 3 this year when Ramesh Kapur,assistant project officer-cum-assistant public information officer (APIO) of the ADC (Development) office,had assured the commission that he will get the masavi of the village.

But when he failed to do so,Mandeep Singh again approached the SIC on May 14 and the case was re-opened.

The SIC then directed the PIO of the DC office to appear before the Commission on July 16 along with the information to be supplied. But on July 16,Jaswinder Kumar,a revenue official of the DC office,appeared before the panel and submitted an affidavit stating that the consolidation of Noor Bhaini village had not been done,therefore,the masavi was not available in the official records.

He also stated that the document may be available with the office of Director Land Records,Jalandhar. On this,the SIC called upon DRO Pinki Devi to show cause as to why a penalty not be imposed upon her under the RTI Act for delay in supply of information.

The SIC also issued another showcause notice to the DRO to state why suitable compensation not be awarded to appellant Mandeep Singh under the RTI Act for the detriment and loss suffered by him on account of the delay. The next date of hearing in the case is August 20.