Curation Team
BHUBANESWAR: State govt has issued show-cause notices to around 300 govt employees posted as district sub-registrars (DSRs) in the past 10 years, who are involved in suspected irregularities in land sales, revenue, and disaster management, revenue minister Suresh Pujari said here on Tuesday.
“Officers who were on DSR duty between 2014 and 2024 and indulged in illegal activities are facing disciplinary proceedings. Some of them even faced criminal charges and are in jail,” he said.
There are 217 sub-registrar offices and 30 DSR offices in the state. Several cases of land fraud and illegalities involving DSRs have been reported in the past year. In March, a DSR and four brokers in Sambalpur were arrested for land fraud to acquire land of a deceased person through impersonation.
Most irregularities, however, involve allowing the registration of sub-plots (part of a land parcel) without the approval of development authorities, which is not allowed after the enactment of the Registration (Odisha Amendment) Act, 2013. In April, the govt recommended action against 18 sub-registrars for illegally registering sub-plots in Bhubaneswar. More than 3 lakh sub-plots were registered since 2014 without the permission of the development authorities.
The minister said to prevent such wrongdoings, the govt is now focusing on greater use of technology and smart surveillance systems in every DSR office. “We are reviewing the reports periodically,” the minister said. He was speaking to media persons ahead of a workshop of tehsildars and sub-collectors scheduled here on Wednesday. CM Mohan Charan Majhi is scheduled to inaugurate the workshop.
Pujari said 317 tehsildars and 58 sub-collectors will attend the workshop physically, while revenue divisional commissioners, district collectors and other employees of the department, such as revenue inspectors and amins, will attend digitally.
“During the workshop, there will be interactions with officials on their workplace difficulties and the govt’s priorities so that we achieve the desired outcomes in the days to come,” the minister said.
Revenue department officials have been asked to come to the workshop with progress reports of their work. One year’s work of the tehsils will be reviewed. “Three districts and five tehsils that have excelled in their services, such as issuance of records of rights to the landless, giving land rights to tribals and people displaced by projects, and land acquisition for railway, highway and industrial projects, will be awarded during the event,” he said.
“After the tehsildar workshops, a DSR workshop will also be held soon,” he added.
