Call it irresponsibility or turning a blind eye to illegal land occupation – the Land Department of the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) has admitted that it does not possess a comprehensive summary of the total land allotted to private individuals within the said region.
In response to queries filed under the RTI Act, the department stated that some land records were either misplaced or fragmented during the two instances when the office was relocated.
The department has effectively washed its hands of the entire responsibility by claiming that compiling such data requires extensive verification of old records and manual cross-checking – a process it says is both time-consuming and resource-intensive. Without a cadastral map, the department claims it is not in a position to determine the total area allotted to private individuals.
However, the department does have a rough estimate that the total area allotted to government departments in the region is 64 square kilometres, as per a notification issued on 17 October 1981.
Now, one must dig deeper to understand why the Land Management Department lacks records of the land allotted to key government establishments such as the state civil secretariat, the legislative assembly building, and other government institutions. There is also no data available regarding the status of unoccupied land within the Itanagar city limits or the detailed demarcation between government and private land allocations in the ICR.
What has the department been doing all these years if not the very job it was entrusted with?
They urgently need to devise the quickest possible method to start rectifying this situation and fulfil their responsibilities.
Will the government take note of this dereliction of duty and fix responsibility, or is it going to look the other way because there is something to hide from public view?