STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The former Chief Secretary, Dr. S. S Bloeria on Sunday released a book titled “Land Revenue Administration in Jammu & Kashmir- Reflections of Some Iconic Revenue Officers” at a function here.
The Book has been written by a senior retired iconic Revenue officer, Virender Kumar Gupta.
It contains reflections of twenty iconic Revenue officers of J&K who have made a mark in revenue administration of the erstwhile State besides explaining Revenue Act and Land Settlement, popularly known as Bandobast.
Dr. Bloeria complimented Virender Gupta in producing such a informative book of a sector which has lost its sheen over the years and hoped that the reflections of the iconic officers would motivate the present and future young entrants into the Revenue service to serve the people better and work dedicatedly to restore the lost image of the important instrument of the governance.
He said it was not an easy task to contact all these retied officers and the collect documents from the families of the deceased officers to make the book unique and meaningful. The author narrated how this idea of writing a book of this kind emerged at the different meetings of senior retired revenue officers who all were concerned at the declining public image of the service and said he was happy that the book has finally come out for he was tasked by his colleagues and seniors.
He thanked Dr. Bloeria for his patronage and support in accomplishing this very difficult task.
Virender narrated two interesting anecdotes from the book relating to two very accomplished and outstanding officers which had strong message to other officers.
One of the stories relates to the Governor of Jammu Ram Chander Dobey during the reign of Maharaja Pratap Singh who ordered return to Jammu the royal entourage of the Maharani from Ramban, as his considered view and assessment was that none of the members of the Royal family, much less the Maharani, should leave the Palace for Srinagar without making prior proper security arrangements and protocol at the destination.
He offered to resign to the Maharaja if he was convinced of his logics & decision. The Maharaja agreed with him.
The second episode related to legendary SAS Qadri who the revenue system in a hard way. On his attachment in the Revenue Department as trainee with Patwari of Srinagar whose first order was to clean the ‘chillum’ of his hookah which he faithfully accomplished. Qadri shared his experience much later with younger officers saying that Patwari ‘s was to leave aside “ego” is someone has to learn something.
Among those retired senior officers present include B A Runial, Daleep Singh, K R Padha, Sudharshan Sharma, En. Vinod Gupta, Mukerjeet Sharma, R.S Brocca and K.B Jandial.