Arvind Kumar Singh, Jamui. A surprising fact has come to light in the investigation of cases of farmers showing many times more land than the actual area while purchasing paddy. Ramdayal Manjhi, a resident of Kala village of Lakshmipur block, turned out to be the owner of 3.11 lakh acres of land on paper, which is almost half of the total area of Jamui district.
The big thing is that Ramdayal had died years ago. A fake receipt in his name has been attached with the application uploaded for selling paddy in the name of one Usha Devi's husband Rambaran Sah. Now the matter has become more complicated as no trace of Usha Devi has been found even after searching and the string of fraud is getting longer.
All this has been revealed in the preliminary investigation being conducted by the Cooperative Department. In the online land receipt of Ramdayal Manjhi which has been attached with the application for sale of paddy, account number is 198, khesra is zero and total area is recorded as 3,11,113 acres. This figure is more than half of the total agricultural area of the district (about six lakh acres).
The online receipt mentions tax collection till the year 1969-70. According to the receipt, Jamabandi number 28 is recorded on page number 25 of the Jamabandi register, while the computerized Jamabandi number is 198152900007605. In the investigation of the Cooperative Department, it has become clear that some other person has created a fake receipt in the name of Ramdayal Manjhi and uploaded a fake application.
Ramdayal is no longer in this world and neither are his three sons. His 50-year-old grandson Puran Manjhi has no knowledge of any such receipt, land or application. Due to the server of the Revenue and Land Reforms Department being down, the verification of the authenticity of the online receipt has not been completed yet.
Registrar took cognizance of Jagran's news, ongoing investigation
The Cooperative Department State Headquarters has taken the news titled 'Paddy planted in 1.67 lakh acres, farmers harvested crop on 62 lakh acres' published in Dainik Jagran on January 7 seriously.
In the light of the published news, Registrar of Co-operation Committees, Rajneesh Kumar Singh has constituted a team of senior officials and issued instructions to investigate the matter and ensure necessary action.
After this, the above shocking fact has come to light in the investigation being conducted by the District Magistrate. District Cooperative Officer Harendra Prasad said that the investigation of the matter is still going on.
Even the landless are selling paddy in large quantities
Under Lakshmipur block, Nazari Pax has left Pidron behind in fraud. Here a large quantity of paddy has been purchased from landless farmers. Apart from this, brothers, nephews and relatives are getting special attention in purchasing paddy from PACS farmers.
About three acres of land is available to Parmeshwar Das, brother of the chairman of the said committee, Shyamsunder Das. 160 and 90 quintals of paddy were purchased from him, 130 and 120 quintals of 250 quintals were purchased from his son Shashi Kumar on two different dates, 149 and 86 quintals of paddy were purchased from Pankaj Kumar, another son of Parmeshwar Das, 150 quintals and 96 quintals of paddy were purchased from his own son Niranjan Kumar and 90 quintals of paddy was purchased from Parvind Kumar. That is, a Raiyat family of three acres of land produced 1000 quintals of paddy, which seems not only unbelievable but also impossible.
The purchase of 250 quintals of paddy twice from PACS President's son Dheeraj Kumar, 246 quintals and 240 quintals from Sitaram Das's son Amarjeet Kumar and Bittu Kumar and 190 quintals of paddy from his wife Ashoga Devi is telling a lot.
Amarjeet is the nephew of the Chairman. Similarly, the story of purchasing 532 quintals of paddy from Naresh Das's family is no less interesting.