Staff Reporter:
Around four lakh namjari khatians have gone missing from land offices in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur and several other districts, while a further 10 lakh remain without numbers, according to Ministry of Land sources.
The discrepancies surfaced during data entry work being carried out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the Land Management Automation Project.
With the khatians numberless or missing, project staff have been unable to complete mutation-related entries in the Automated Land Service System, leaving landowners’ records incomplete.
Following the discovery, the Ministry of Land has instructed the land offices concerned to recreate the mutation khatians and assign them numbers. The ministry, however, has not directed any inquiry into those responsible for the losses.
Contacted by the Daily Sun, Additional Secretary (Development) Emdadul Haque Chowdhury confirmed the matter.
Asked whether it amounted to negligence, he said it could be described as negligence on the part of the officers and employees concerned, but not as intentional, since no one had been affected as a result.
The ministry has identified five distinct patterns behind the missing records.
In some offices, the case file and application survive along with both registers, but the khatian copy alone is missing.
In others, the khatian and Register-2 are both absent, though the case file, application and Register-9 remain intact.
A third category has only the two registers surviving, with the khatian and related file untraceable.
A fourth covers offices where only Register-9 remains, and a fifth where only Register-2 survives, with no other records in place.
Senior Secretary ASM Saleh Ahmed, issuing directions on the matter on Wednesday, said the missing records had come to light during the UNDP data entry exercise, adding that many mutation khatians could not be traced in various land offices in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur.
He said the absence of proper khatians was creating complications in providing land services to citizens, since ownership and mutation details could not be entered into the digital system without them.
To address the problem, the ministry has issued a set of guidelines. Officials have been asked to identify and verify the relevant records, cross-check information against surviving registers and case files, and, where necessary, request landowners to submit any khatian copies in their possession.
Once verified, the information is to be entered, checked and validated in the digital system according to a prescribed format, with scanned copies of the relevant registers and documents uploaded alongside, in line with ministry procedure.
The ministry has clarified that the exercise is intended only to recreate khatians that were approved in the past, and does not amount to fresh approval of any mutation or the creation of new ownership rights.
Officials have also been instructed to halt work on any file and refer it for further scrutiny wherever discrepancies or doubts arise in the available records.
Every recreated khatian must be certified and signed by the assistant commissioner (land) concerned, confirming that the original could not be found and that it has been recreated from surviving records for administrative necessity and to ensure land services for citizens – with a note that the original will replace the recreated copy if it is later located.
A printed copy of each recreated khatian is to be kept with the relevant mutation file, with 100-200 khatians bound together for record-keeping.
According to the ministry, assistant commissioners (land) will carry out the work in their respective upazilas, circles, unions and municipal land offices, and have been given two months to complete it.
Additional district magistrates (revenue) will monitor the work at district level, while divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners will provide overall supervision.
Land offices facing staff shortages may temporarily redeploy personnel from less essential duties to meet the deadline.
The project director of the Land Management Automation Project and the joint secretary (DKMP) of the Ministry of Land will coordinate overall implementation, with the project director also tasked with making any system changes needed to facilitate the recreation of khatians.
