No end for this ‘plot’ in 7 years

According to Sudam Murkute, Archana’s husband who practises law in Pune, he had bought two plots of land (Survey No. 31) in Dapsare village in 2008. Of the two plots, 1 acre 15 gunthas was registered with the revenue department. The second plot of 2 acres and 15 gunthas remains unregistered.

“The tehsildar’s office rejected our registration application for the second plot citing that our family wasn’t a farming family. They, however, had accepted the application for the other plot that we were farmers. What shocked me is that the Circle Officer did not inquire if we had any document to show that we were farmers. He rejected the application suo motu,” said Murkute who insists that his family is a third generation of a farming family. He complained that he spent four years visiting officers of talathi, circle officer and tehsildar but none helped them resolve the issue. He approached the Sub Divisional Officer and filed a second appeal with the Deputy Collector. “In 2012, the deputy collector concluded that the application had been wrongly rejected. He accepted my appeal and sent it to the tahslidar telling him to conduct an inquiry and dispose of the matter. At the tahsil office, it got caught in procedural maze again. Even after three years of the appeal and after the deputy collector’s intervention, notation entry is yet to be done,” said Murkute.

Velha tehsildar Ramling Chavan said that the delay was the result of the complicated rulebook.

“Although Deputy Collector saheb accepted the appeal and sent the matter back to me, I can’t do the notation entry as rules don’t provide me the powers to overturn the decision taken by my own office. It has to be done by an SDO,” said Chavan.

“There are hundreds of such cases which add to the distress of farmers already under financial stress,” said Ramrao Wagh, a villager.