Real inconsistencies in land management, context: Record correction after mutation -- by Suman Chowdhury Biku

 

 

Real inconsistencies in land management, context: Record correction after mutation -- by Suman Chowdhury Biku

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Putting aside everything else in our country's land management, the subject seems to me the most ridiculous that is the self-contradiction of record updating, management and preservation after completing mutation. According to the SA & T Act and the land management manual, provision has been made for lightening and correction of records through naming process between the two surveys. And as per the rules this work is done at the field level through upazila land office and union land office  by Ac land, kanungo, union land assistant officer, surveyor, office assistant and mutation assistant, process server according to the existing law. One copy of the five copies of the khatian created in the name of new owner is distributed to the land owner after given approval of a mutation case and one copy is kept in the Ac land office, one copy is kept in the relevant case nothi and the other copy is sent to the district record room. With few exceptions the destination of the first four copies is fine, but I don't know if there is a precedent for the rest to over reach the record room. This is the practice of the whole country. Somewhere that copy may not be opened from the case file, or even if it is opened for the purpose of sending somewhere, it is neglected in one place day after day. So what is the matter, every day records are being changed in the upazila and field level while all the records are being kept intact from the time of final supply of published records in the form of gazette in the district record room. As a result there is a huge gap in the right information of many. And because of that there are raising various complications.

 

Here are some examples:

Suppose you have to sue a civil case to the learned civil court for a wrong survey record and you went to a lawyer. He advised you to submit a certified copy of the relevant khatian. You collected a certified copy from the record room and gave it to the lawyer. He prepared the prayer petition of the case based on it and filed the case. The learned court completed the trial in its light and gave the verdict. You are as much as happy to get an ex-party decree. In such cases there is usually no competition. According to the certified copy, there is no need for those who have defended you to compete.

 

 

 

Because he has already sold the land of that khatian to a different person on the basis of that disputed record. And after he has updated the record in the procurement process, his name has been included in the place of the previous owner and the rights of the previous owner have been revoked. But even after you collect the certified copy from the record room, you don't know that so many changes have already taken place!

 

This time you took a copy of the decree to the land office for correction of records. The concerned land assistant officer checked the records and saw that the ownership of the land requested had already changed. But the declaration suit did not shed any light on the matter and they were not represented in the case.

It is seen that in most of the cases the issue is tried to prove as harassment without going into the depth of the problem. In this way it is seen that as a result of an inconsistency at the beginning, the problems are gradually accumulating and taking on a complex shape.

Therefore, the general public should be made aware that before doing any work related to land, it is essential to go to the field level land office and find out the status of the record.

 

In the above case, the lawyer should have advised the client to present to him the news about the present status of the record and to conduct the case in his light. But in reality, ninety percent of what we see is not done.

Another factor that plays a controlling role in creating distance between the field office and the general public is land development tax exemption.

If there was an obligation to pay the minimum land development tax, every person would have to go to the record and regularly know the status of his land record.

 

The above is just one of the ongoing inconsistencies in land management. There are thousands of such inconsistencies. Usually we all say that most social conflicts arise from this land. If so preventing this minor inconsistencies would definitely have a positive impact on the overall national development.

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Suman chowdhury biku

lyricist, Radio Bangladesh

E-mail: scbikuland@gmail.com