Jamabandis are essential documents as per revenue records are concerned. Jamabandi consists of many parts like Kheawat numbers and Khata numbers, names of landlords with parentage, names of tenants with parentage, source of irrigation, survey number, area of land with the kind of soil, cess charges, lagan if any, mutation number with the kind of mutation, and remarks column. These are written in columns, and the holdings of landlords are mentioned completely in one or more than one khewat. In revenue parlance, it is known as Jamabandi charsala. It means it was written after a gap of four years after the previous Jamabandi.
Before writing the new Jamabandi of any revenue estate, all the mutations that have been attested from the last four years are to be incorporated in the previous Jamabandi with a red-colored pen. A red-colored pen is used because it gives visibility to the statements of mutations that are written there. After all the mutations have been mentioned in the previous Jamabandi, it is necessary to check if there are any entries in the current girdawari that too have to be kept in view and should be mentioned in the previous Jamabandi, especially mortgage cases are mentioned only in Girdawaries. When all these have been completed, it is necessary for a patwari to make a chant register, meaning a register in which it will be thoroughly mentioned what was or is the share of any landlord and whether he or she has sold any patch of land from his share or has borrowed any patch. It means addition and subtraction is done in this register. It will be called a rough register also but remember it is an essential document. It must be preserved for future references.
But till date many Jamabandis have been written but not a single chant register is available in any village resulting in many litigations have arisen in past decades by false records and are still lingering in revenue and civil courts there by many people have and are suffering a lot. Now this government has taken the best advantage of information technology, and it has made possible that the revenue department was made hi-tech by introducing an online system. Jamabandis have been written in each revenue estate and have been scanned and thereafter digitalized. Officers and especially the field staff has made it possible within a short spell of time. These newly written Jamabandis are available on the revenue portal “Aap Ki Zameen Aap ki Nigraani.”
Nowadays, the government has ordered and the Deputy Commissioners have constituted teams of experts that are checking these Jamabandis, and it is called quality check. Once it will be completed these Jamabandis will be freezed and thereafter no change will be done and the teams engaged have to give a certificate that these Jamabandis are hundred percent error-free and even officers have to submit authentication before higher ups in this regard. But one wonders how it will be possible for the teams constituted to make these Jamabandis 100% error-free in a short span of time. Many people have visited the District record room Anantnag and are enquiring about old records. When asked why you need this old record they pause and answer that in the digitalized Jamabandi my name doesn’t exist anywhere when record has been tallied the grievance was found genuine.
One person from Qasbai Baghat or from Anantnag town came and demanded the record of his ancestral property. Before this author can open the record of Jamabandi written in the year 1967-68, the person revealed that he was having a share from two survey numbers but when I checked the online records only one survey number is there in which his name exists. He was adamant to know the answer to his question. What should I do? This is the question this author listens to from 30 percent of people that visit the record room in a day.
It is a fact that these Jamabandis were written on a war footing basis but bad luck was these were not thoroughly checked instead were got signed hurriedly and then submitted in Regional Director offices where these were scanned and after that were handed back to patwaries who were not computer savvy at that time. Some knew ABC, but the majority were not aware of IT technology. These patwaries hired computer literate persons and read them entries by sitting on iron or wood made tools lying aside this computer literate person who himself was not aware of ABC of revenue language. There are many errors in these Jamabandis and if these will be made ilke verification register and will be checked thoroughly by the concerned patwari and GQ that too in a targeted time will make the record error-free and nobody can raise fingers about it.
The area of any village mentioned in Record of Rights and in Jamabandi of 1967-68 and newly digitalized Jamabandi is not the same. It varies; somewhere more and somewhere less. On the last page of this Jamabandi which is handwritten, it has been mentioned as figures in ROR but when one checks inside it varies. It is suggested if these digitalized Jamabandis will be treated as verification registers and patwari concerned including GQ and Naib Tehsildar will be given deadlines to write new Jamabandi that will be best for the betterment of the general public. There are many mortgage letters mentioned in Girdawariries where a person has taken KCC or housing or any other loan means the property vests with the bank. These entries are also missing in digitalized Jamabandis. It also creates problems. The same needs incorporation in new records.
The writer is In-charge of the Record Room, DC Office Anantnag and can be reached at mo**********@***il.com
Modernizing land records: Digital Jamabandis and the need for verification registers
