Independent Posting – Tahsildar days

I enjoyed the Tahsildar charge. After having bitter sweet experience of BDO charge, this was quite refreshing. The Tahsildar holds lot of command and respect at the Taluka level. Currently, as I’m writing this amidst Corona crisis, each Tahsildar is the Incident Commander in his/her Tahsil. That means he/she is the chief crisis manager at Taluka level and all other line departments (PWD, Irrigation, Police, Rural development, Transport etc) report to him/her. He has to mobilize the manpower and resources, plan for ground level rescue and rehabilitation etc. While the Higher ups Like the Government and Collector make the strategy, the Tahsildar is the tactical guy. He’s the go-to person for the Collector.

Anyways, coming back to my experience of being Bhadravati Tahsildar – describing it in three words – Satisfying, Challenging and Diverse.

1. Diverse because, Bhadravati, a big Taluk had so many things
   • Coal Mining blocks and the related labour disputes, land acquisition, complaints of villagers against river diversion, land submergence etc
   • Industries like Power generation, transmission etc
   • Wildlife and man-animal conflict
   • Archaeological sites
2. Challenging because, in a such a diverse setting, enforcement of few things becomes difficult. Many reasons for that – Staff strength, morale, local socio-economic-political scenario, geography etc. A typical example is the Illegal Sand mining business. Its a typical cat and mouse game. You need regular monitoring, intel , sustained efforts etc. For a sand mining mafia, its their only business. But for a Tahsildar, he has many things on his plate.
3. Satisfying – Overall I had my share of adventure 😉 and learnings which will certainly be useful in the future.

Like other charges too, there were visitors of all kind – one’s seeking social entitlement certificates, complaints against road closure/encroachment (very very common in villages because of petty disputes), land title certificates (7/12), complaints against Talathi’s (Village Accountant – The last in the hierarchy of Revenue dept) absence in their offices, complaints against property disputes etc. But the Visitors to Revenue dept are different from Visitors to other offices. Their concerns are far more grave and serious, rightly so because they are related to Land/Property titles. Machiavelli said “Men sooner forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony”. I’ve had atleast 3-4 people come to me in tears regarding their property disputes. Couple of them regarding Partition suits, one regarding getting possession of house under Senior Citizens Maintenance act.

My observations and realizations from this charge are as follows:

High stakes involved – Be it land/property titles and disputes, minor minerals (including sand), law and order (Tahsildar also being Taluka Executive Magistrate), Elections, Census (upcoming 2021), Farmer suicides, crop damage and assessment, social entitlements, various certificates etc all come directly under the Tahsildar. Any of these mentioned issues if neglected can lead to serious law and order repercussions. So obviously with great power comes great responsibility.

In the times of elections and disaster management – obviously high stake projects with defined scope and time interval – its the revenue dept which becomes the lynch-pin of Govt machinery.

Timely execution of Courts/Tribunal/Govt orders – There were atleast readily 3-4 cases before me which because of delay in taking action, are stuck up either in appeals and other litigation. An order under SARFAESI act for taking over possession of mortgage property, Senior Citizens maintenance act, Partition order by Civil court etc are now held up. Preliminary study of these appeals revealed they’re all hollow. But thanks to people with deep pockets who also know how to use the maze of court law and procedures, our action is stymied.

By the end of my Tahsildar charge, we received letters from Archaeological dept for encroachment removal of some structures adjoining some ancient sites. I conveyed this to my successor that we should not do the same mistakes of delaying such action again.

Knowledge of Land laws and Court procedures- Since Tahsildar acts a quasi-judicial court hearing Revenue related matters, he needs to know the procedures of functioning of court and also the knowledge of various land laws, succession and inheritance law etc.

I tried two cases but one month was too short to decide them.

Motivating staff and getting best out of them – There are office staff like Senior clerks and then field staff like Talathis and RIs. Both have enough work to do. But thanks to the alibi of field visits, the Talathis are wont to be absent in their offices. Many villagers and farmers come complaining of Talathis not being in their Saaza offices and not giving required services. Nowadays its a common thing that most of them don’t reside in their Saaza (a agglomeration of revenue villages – jurisdiction of a Talathi) as in earlier days. Had to put in some systems like updating and submitting their Dairies every month, fixing days of office for Talathis having more than one charge and publicizing their mobile numbers to villagers etc.

My charge got over in the midst of our Corona preparations and planning. Wish I could have extended it. Apart from work, last month we had the District Revenue sports meet. Teams were formed as per Sub-Divisons. Bhadravati, coming under Warora Sub-division was the favorites to win the Trophy. I participated from Warora team. I participated in Cricket. We won a nail biting semi-finals against Chandrapur subdivision. I bowled the last over. It was fantastic. The finals also was even exciting, dragged to the last ball. I was present whole day all days of the Sports meet at the ground cheering my staff. Warora won the overall Championship also.

On the penultimate day of my charge, I managed to go around Bhadravati to visit some of the historical and archaeological sites like Buddhist caves, Bhadranag Temple, Jain Mandir, A handicraft centre etc. In that sense Bhadravati, is quite an happening place.

Anyways moving on to next Charge-SDM, which gives an even wider canvas and platform for service and action.