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Jamui. An investigation into cases of farmers showing land holdings many times larger than their actual land holdings during paddy procurement has revealed a shocking fact. Ramdayal Manjhi, a resident of Kala village in Lakshmipur block, was found to own 3.11 lakh acres on paper, which is nearly half the total land area of Jamui district.
The important thing is that Ramdayal died years ago. A fake receipt in his name was attached to an application uploaded to sell paddy to Usha Devi, wife of Rambaran Sah. Now, despite repeated searches, Usha Devi's whereabouts have not been found, further complicating the matter and lengthening the fraudulent network.
All this was revealed during a preliminary investigation conducted by the Cooperative Department. The online land receipt attached to Ramdayal Manjhi's application for paddy sale lists account number 198, Khasra number zero, and a total area of 311,113 acres. This figure represents more than half of the district's total agricultural land area (approximately six lakh acres).
The online receipt mentions land revenue collections dating back to 1969-70. According to the receipt, the Jamabandi register's number is 28 on page 25, while the computerized Jamabandi number is 198152900007605. An investigation by the Cooperative Department has revealed that someone else created a fake receipt in Ramdayal Manjhi's name and uploaded a fake application.
Ramdayal is no longer alive, nor are his three sons. His 50-year-old grandson, Puran Manjhi, has no knowledge of any such receipt, land, or application. The verification of the online receipt has not yet been completed due to the Revenue and Land Reforms Department's server being down.
Registrar took cognizance of Jagran's news, investigation underway
The news titled 'Paddy planted in 1.67 lakh acres, farmers harvested crop on 62 lakh acres' published in Dainik Jagran on January 7 has been taken seriously by the State Headquarters of the Cooperative Department.
In the light of the published news, Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Rajneesh Kumar Singh has formed a team of senior officials and issued instructions to investigate the matter and ensure necessary action.
Subsequently, the District Magistrate's investigation revealed the shocking facts. District Cooperative Officer Harendra Prasad stated that the investigation is still ongoing.
Even the landless are selling paddy in large quantities.
The Nazari PACS, located in the Laxmipur block, has surpassed even Pidraun in fraudulent activities. Large quantities of paddy have been procured from landless farmers here. Furthermore, PACS are giving special consideration to brothers, nephews, and relatives in the purchase of paddy from farmers.
Parmeshwar Das, brother of Shyamsundar Das, the chairman of the committee, has approximately three acres of land. Paddy was purchased from him for 160 and 90 quintals, from his son Shashi Kumar for 130 and 120 quintals on two different dates, totaling 250 quintals. Another son of Parmeshwar Das, Pankaj Kumar, for 149 and 86 quintals, from his own son Niranjan Kumar for 150 and 96 quintals, and from Parvind Kumar for 90 quintals. This means that a family of tenants with three acres of land produced 1000 quintals of paddy, which seems not only unbelievable but also impossible.
The purchase of 250 quintals of paddy in two installments from Dheeraj Kumar, son of the PACS president, 246 quintals and 240 quintals from Amarjeet Kumar and Bittu Kumar, sons of Sitaram Das, and 190 quintals from his wife Ashoga Devi speaks volumes.
Amarjeet is the president's nephew. Similarly, the story of the purchase of 532 quintals of paddy from Naresh Das's family is no less interesting.
