1.3 million errors rectified. So who will recognise the people behind the achievement?

A humble question to the Hon’ble Chief Minister: What about the long-pending Grade Pay demand of J&K’s Patwaris?

By Mohammad Amin Mir

The Government of Jammu & Kashmir has reported a significant milestone in the modernisation of land records: more than 1.3 million clerical errors in digitised land records have been identified and rectified, while verification of Jamabandis continues across the Union Territory.

The Government has also stated that digitised records are subjected to a three-stage Maker-Checker-Approver process, with a digital trail maintained for changes made to Jamabandis.

There is little doubt that this is an important administrative achievement.

But behind every corrected entry in a land record is a field-level story.

There is a Patwari who knows the village, the Khewat, the Khata, the survey number, the old Jamabandi and the Girdawari—and, in many cases, the history behind an apparent discrepancy. There are field visits, verification of documents, interaction with landholders, examination of old records and coordination with supervisory officers.

A digital record may appear on a computer screen, but the truth behind that record often has to be established on the ground.

And that brings us to a simple and respectful question for the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir:

If Jammu & Kashmir has reached the milestone of rectifying more than 1.3 million clerical errors in land records, where does the long-pending Grade Pay issue of the Patwari cadre stand?

The people behind the numbers

The figure of 1.3 million is significant because land records are not merely administrative documents. They affect ownership, inheritance, sale, mortgage, agricultural activity, compensation and numerous other matters in the lives of ordinary citizens.

The Government’s recent Assembly reply indicates that the Revenue Department has been undertaking systematic rectification and verification of digitised records.

But digitisation cannot be viewed simply as a software exercise.

The Revenue Department itself places Patwaris within the field-level revenue hierarchy responsible for land and revenue management and other grassroots administrative functions.

The transformation from traditional paper records to digital land administration has therefore changed the nature of the Patwari’s work.

The Patwari of yesterday maintained records.

The Patwari of today is increasingly required to work with digitised Jamabandis, online mutations, digital verification, land-data systems and technology-driven government programmes, while continuing to perform traditional revenue responsibilities.

The workload has not disappeared because the record has moved from paper to a screen.

In many cases, it has increased.

A historic achievement should also raise a historic question

The Government deserves credit for bringing before the public the progress made in land-record rectification. At the same time, such an achievement naturally raises another question:

Who carried much of this work forward at the field level?

The answer cannot be reduced to a single designation or department. Digitisation is a collective administrative exercise involving technology, officers, supervisory staff and field functionaries.

Yet the contribution of the Patwari cannot simply be overlooked.

When an old record contains a spelling difference, when ownership has changed through inheritance, when a mutation remains pending, when several co-sharers appear under one survey number, or when a digital entry does not correspond with the old revenue record, someone has to examine the matter carefully.

That work requires more than a computer.

It requires revenue knowledge, field experience and responsibility.

Then comes the question of Grade Pay

For years, the Patwari cadre has been raising the issue of Grade Pay and seeking recognition of the changing technical character of the post.

This demand should not be viewed simply as a request for an additional financial benefit.

At its core, it is a question of whether the service structure corresponds with the responsibilities and skills now expected from the post.

A recent public representation concerning the Patwari cadre has highlighted the technical dimensions of contemporary revenue work, including digital record management, online mutation systems, GIS-related land information and legal verification.

At the same time, Patwaris continue to perform traditional revenue responsibilities.

This combination makes the issue worthy of an objective examination by the competent authorities.

From Jamabandi to digital governance

There was a time when the principal tools of a Patwari were the register, pen, ink, field book and traditional revenue records.

Today, the working environment has changed considerably.

The Patwari is expected to understand both the old revenue record and the new digital record.

That is particularly important because digitisation does not automatically eliminate historical discrepancies. In some cases, it can actually make an old discrepancy more visible.

A name may be recorded differently in two documents.

A share may not correspond with physical possession.

A mutation may remain outside the digitised record.

An inheritance may not have been incorporated.

A decades-old entry may require examination before a citizen can proceed with a legitimate transaction.

These are not merely computer problems.

They are revenue-record problems requiring human examination.

The Patwari stands between the citizen and the digital system

For an ordinary landholder, the digital land-record portal may be the visible face of modern governance.

But when the digital entry is wrong, incomplete or inconsistent with the old record, the citizen eventually reaches the field revenue establishment.

The Patwari is often the person who has to explain what the record says, what the old record contained, what the field position indicates and what further administrative action may be required.

That makes the Patwari an important link between technology and the citizen.

The Government’s achievement of correcting more than 1.3 million clerical errors therefore provides an appropriate moment to examine whether the service conditions of the field-level personnel involved in this work also require review.

A simple question to the Hon’ble Chief Minister

The question before the Government need not be complicated.

Where is the Grade Pay proposal of the Patwari cadre today?

Has it been examined?

If it is pending before the competent authority, what further information is required?

If financial concurrence is necessary, has the proposal reached the appropriate stage?

If there are administrative objections, can those objections be communicated to the cadre?

And if the proposal is otherwise admissible under the applicable rules and policies, can the Government take it towards a reasoned decision?

These are reasonable administrative questions.

The Patwaris are not asking the Government to bypass rules or procedures. They are asking for the matter to be examined, decided and communicated.

Recognition should accompany responsibility

Government employees are expected to accept responsibility when entrusted with important assignments.

Recognition of that responsibility is also an important part of a healthy administrative system.

If the Revenue Department is moving towards increasingly technical land administration, it is appropriate to periodically examine whether the designation, duties, qualifications, responsibilities and pay structure of its field functionaries remain aligned.

This does not mean that every new assignment must automatically result in higher pay.

The question is whether a substantial and continuing transformation in the nature of a post warrants a formal review of its service conditions.

That is precisely why the Grade Pay matter deserves consideration by the competent authorities.

The Government’s achievement and the Patwari’s expectation

The figure of 1.3 million rectified errors will rightly be remembered as an important milestone in Jammu & Kashmir’s land-record modernisation journey.

But perhaps another milestone can also be created.

A milestone in which the Government says:

The work has changed, the responsibilities have changed, the technology has changed—and therefore we have also examined the service conditions of the people carrying this transformation to the ground.

Such an approach would not diminish the achievement of digitisation.

Rather, it would place that achievement in its proper human context.

Technology can organise information.

Software can process data.

Servers can store records.

But at the field level, the reliability of a land record still depends substantially on people who understand the land, the record and the circumstances surrounding it.

A humble appeal

The Hon’ble Chief Minister has an opportunity to provide clarity on an issue that has remained important to the Patwari cadre for a considerable period.

The appeal is therefore simple and respectful:

Hon’ble Chief Minister, if more than 1.3 million clerical errors in J&K’s land records have been rectified, kindly also consider the people who have been working at the ground level to make this digital transformation meaningful.

Where is their Grade Pay proposal?

What is its present status?

And if the demand is found justified under the applicable rules and financial procedures, can Your Honour kindly help take it towards a decision?

This is not a demand to overlook procedure.

It is a request that the procedure reach its logical conclusion.

The Patwari cadre has been part of Jammu & Kashmir’s revenue administration for generations. Today, it is also becoming part of the Union Territory’s digital land-governance architecture.

If the records are being modernised, perhaps it is also time to formally examine whether the service structure of those handling these responsibilities has kept pace with that transformation.

A historic achievement deserves recognition.

The people contributing to that achievement deserve to know where their own long-pending issue stands.

That is the humble question before the Hon’ble Chief Minister.