Chandigarh: With the harvest season in full swing and “more than 40 per cent posts” of Patwaris lying vacant, the Haryana government is racing against time to assess the damage caused to crops by unseasonal rain in the state.
Patwaris or revenue officials are in charge of conducting field surveys to verify the loss to the standing crop – an exercise termed girdawari — on the basis of which the state government would provide compensation to the farmers.
So far, Haryana’s farmers have reported damage to rabi crops, majorly to wheat, on over 16 lakh acres, according to the state government’s e-Kshatipurti portal. These crops are sown in the winter season and harvested in spring.
Haryana’s Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala told ThePrint Saturday that the field surveys to assess the crop damage have to be “finished in the next 7-10 days”.
Keeping the urgency in mind, the state government, led by CM Manohar Lal Khattar, Saturday announced the appointment of “Kshatipurti Sahayak” — compensation assistant who will be a villager — to assist the Patwaris in verifying the crop damage.
Talking about the Patwaris, a Haryana civil services official who worked as a deputy secretary in the Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management Department told ThePrint that “more than 40 per cent posts of Patwaris are vacant in Haryana”.
“This is true not only for Patwaris but also for posts such as Naib Tehsildars and Tehsildars. There is hardly any Patwari in Haryana who doesn’t have the charge of two or more Patwar circles,” said the official.
A Patwar circle is a revenue block that consists of one big village or a few smaller villages.
“Most of the Patwaris are currently burdened with two or even three Patwar circles,” a Patwari working in the state’s Fatehabad district confirmed to ThePrint Saturday.
Another Patwari working in Sirsa district said the condition was worse in his district as there were hardly 65 Patwaris for more than 200 Patwar circles. “Some of our Patwaris have the charge of 8 to 9 Patwar circles,” he added.
When contacted for queries, Chautala, who holds the portfolio of Revenue and Disaster Management in the state, admitted that there were “several Patwari vacancies” but said he was not aware of their exact number.
When asked about the reason behind the vacancies, he said “no recruitments could be made in the last three years to fill the posts”.
“The government has initiated the process now, and it is hoped the vacancies will be filled soon,” said the deputy CM.
According to the website of the Haryana revenue department, the state has 2,691 Patwar circles. Last month, the Haryana Staff Selection Commission advertised vacancies for 1,213 revenue Patwaris.
The Patwari from Sirsa said that revenue officials like him from across Haryana had proceeded on a strike in December last year, demanding, among other things, that the vacant posts be filled.
“The Patwaris had the grievance that one person was looking after the revenue work of 20 to 25 villages, making it almost impossible to do justice to the job. The strike was called off after a week, on January 4, 2023, on assurances by the state government. However, we are still waiting for the posts to be filled,” he explained.
On the deployment of ‘Kshatipurti Sahayaks’, Chautala said it had nothing to do with the shortage of Patwaris, because even with the full strength of revenue officials, the area on which damage had been reported was so large that finishing the assessment in 7-10 days would not have been possible.
“Haryana is the only state in the country where the farmers themselves report damage to their crops on the e-Kshatipurti portal which has been launched by the state. So far, crop loss has been reported on 16.83 lakh acres. With the portal open till Monday, the number of acres is likely to increase,” said Chautala.
According to the ‘Area Sown Report’ of Haryana’s Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, which ThePrint has accessed, rabi crops were sown on 31.58 lakh hectares or 78 lakh acres last winter.
Kshatipurti Sahayaks & special girdawari
CM Khattar had on 21 March made the announcement about the start of a special girdawari or survey of crops damaged due to the untimely rain and hail in the state. After the first spell of rainfall around 18 March, two more bouts of unseasonal rain increased the area of damage in Haryana.
“Our government announced the special girdawari on March 21 when the assembly’s budget session was in progress on the basis of rain on 18 March and 19 March. Damage to crops was then reported in 13 of 22 state districts. After the rains of 24 March and 25 March, four more districts were added,” Chautala told ThePrint Saturday.
“Now, with fresh rainfall 31 March onwards, damage is likely to be reported across all 22 districts of the state since this spell was more widespread. The survey reports are due,” he added.
Explaining the reason behind hiring ‘Kshatipurti Sahayaks’, Chautala said the harvest season for wheat was in full swing and the farmers needed to cut their crop in the coming days. “For the first time, we decided to hire Kshatipurti Sahayaks so that the work of loss verification could be completed in the next 7-10 days, as this estimation is done on the standing crop,” he pointed out.
According to Chautala, on the basis of the damage reported by the farmers and the verification done by the Kshatipurti Sahayaks, compensation of Rs 9,000 per acre would be given for 25 to 50 per cent damage, Rs 12,000 per acre for 75 per cent damage and Rs 15,000 per acre for 100 per cent damage.
An official from Haryana’s Revenue and Disaster Management Department told ThePrint that “the Kshatipurti Sahayak will assist the Patwari and will be appointed only for this particular girdawari”.
“They will be paid Rs 5,000 for carrying out girdawari work on a block of 500 acres,” said the official.
The job of the Kshatipurti Sahayak — according to a letter issued for their immediate appointment by the Haryana Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, which ThePrint has accessed — will entail verifying damage, collecting details such as picture of the damaged field, location, time stamp, and where the crop is sold, and uploading the same on the e-Kshatipurti portal and e-Girdawari portal.
Hooda demands higher compensation
Former Haryana CM and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has demanded that the BJP-led Khattar government give “at least Rs 500 per quintal bonus over minimum support price to the farmers” and “compensation of Rs 25,000-50,000 per acre for the crop damaged due to rain”.
In a press statement issued Saturday, Hooda alleged that rather than providing compensation to farmers on time, “the BJP-JJP alliance government was troubling them further by stopping the purchase of wheat on the pretext of moisture content and lustre loss”.
Hooda told ThePrint over the phone Saturday that the state government has increased the compensation amount from Rs 12,000 per acre to Rs 15,000 per acre this year, “but it should actually have been hiked four years ago when the central government had hiked the same”.
“Even Rs 15,000 per acre compensation is too less and doesn’t provide any relief to the farmers who invested their money and labour in the crops damaged due to unseasonal rain,” he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)