Mangaluru: Negligence of Assistant Commissioner’s (AC) office, Puttur division coupled with the ‘lack of will’ of the Deputy Commissioners (DC) of Dakshina Kannada (DK) have for long troubled a soldier, Yogish Poojary of Belthangady, currently posted in Rajasthan.
An apathetic bureaucracy has made him run from pillar to post for the last 8 years to get 42 cents of government land in Mudukodi Grama in Belthangady taluk sanctioned in his name clipped under the survey number 108/1F1A1B1 which is in control of the Soldier as his family once lived in this Kumki land.
Yogish Poojary hails from Padiordu of Belthangady taluk and is employed in the Indian Army. He currently functions from Rajasthan after he was transferred from Srinagar. His family currently stays in Padiordu in the Mudukodi Village Panchayath, while he asked for a piece of land located at Ordel in the same Panchayath under a military quota to which he is entitled. “The district administration should have considered my request to grant land in a short time as my family does not own any land,” Yogish lamented.
“I was on leave for twenty days. I am hence unaware of the status of the file.” AC, Puttur division Basavaraj told Newskarnataka.com. The application seeking grant of land under military quota in the revenue department at DC office was filed by Yogish in the year 2007. Though there was GO (Government Order) from the central government to grant land to the soldiers, the file that was opened in connection with the grant of the requested land was closed on April 4, 2013. The revenue department had then concluded that the land was not available.
However the issue grabbed attention of the public and many bureaucrats of Dakshina Kannada after many local news papers published exhaustive reports on the plight of the soldier. Following this a movement under the banner of DARI (Democratic Ambassadors for Rural Integrity) on social media kicked off a debate and asked citizens of DK using social media to call up the then Assistant Commissioner, Puttur Division H K Krishnamurti.
Incredibly, the AC received 1,100 calls, according to an active member of Democratic Ambassadors for All India Rural Integrity DAARI, Ravi, from the public to give justice to the soldier. This forced the AC, H K Krishnamurti to consider the matter on priority.
The AC, according to Yogish who spoke to Newskarnataka.com, advised Yogish to file another application requesting to grant the land. The soldier of the Indian Army submitted another application on July 17, 2014, as directed. At present the file is pending before the DC as officials from AC office failed to obtain the opinion of the Mudukodi Grama Panchayath.
Though the land monitored by Yogish without procuring land right certificate, a private party raised objections claiming person lives in the Kumki land (government land) and requests of Yogish be withdrawn. However the revenue section of the DC office decided on December 30, 2014 that land would be granted to Yogish on special considerations under Karnataka Land Grant Rules 1969 rejecting the objection.
As a fall out of this decision the DC office ordered the AC office to collect the opinion at GP (Grama Panchayath) level to move the file to the DC office from the AC office. While file numbered as DKDC/204/LND (2) CR/2014-2015 sending the file to DC office failed to comply the orders of DC which stated to collect the opinion at GP level. This has slowed down the process of procuring land right.
“The revenue department under Karnataka Revenue Act, Akrama Sakrama, form 50-53 distributed as many as 300 acres of land to many landlords in Dakshina Kannada,” claiming this, a vociferous member of DAARI, Ravi questioned “Why does not the deputy commissioner relent on the issue concerning a middle class soldier?” Recounting the movement of the file, he said the problem was brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary of Karnataka Government and other top bureaucrats too.
There was no response from them, despite the DAARI movement and the pressure built up in the social media and regular media. He expressed the view, that the DC should have moved forward suo moto in the case after the media and the public widely reported about Yogish. This shows how negligent bureaucrats are. He urged the DC to take up the matter with the rigor and zeal it deserves, and immediately provide the 42 cents of land to Yogish Poojary.
Meanwhile, an ambassador of DAARI told Newskarntaka.com that they would not hesitate to publish the mobile phone numbers of the Chief Secretary of Karnataka, Kaushik Mukherji, and the Deputy Commissioner of DK, on the social media, like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, calling for phone in to these top bureaucrats, if there is no forward movement in the matter. He further said, “we are publishing the numbers to people to question concerned authority under freedom of speech[article 19(1)(a)] ensured in the constitution of India.”
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