6.0 Interpretation
6.0.1 Interpretation of the Inquiry and Findings
The findings of the preliminary inquiry revealed that the illegal occupation of the building of Patwarkhana in village Kathera resulted from the evolved systematic misadministration issues due to a lack of effective oversight mechanism in the revenue department. Complacency of the local community coupled with selfish behavior, lack of awareness about the importance and protection of the government property provided an opportunity to the illegal occupants to exploit the situation in their favor. The application of the cultural knowledge and the inquiring mind of the researcher played an instrumental role to identify the irregularities and decode the complacent role played by the elected village representatives and rural community over the years which otherwise would have been overlooked.
6.0.2 Interpretation of the Participatory Field Ethnography
Research Practitioner won the confidence and trust of the people by actively becoming an agent of change. He took initiative to address various issues, including ensuring access to food entitlement quotas to ration dealer, investigating potential deviations in the implementation of a road project, and highlighting concerns related to the prolonged absence of Medical Officer and disciplinary issues among the auxiliary staff posted at the health dispensary operated by the Indian System of Medicine in Kathera village. This engagement enabled the researcher to conduct the participatory field ethnography, understand the power dynamics among different groups, explore interactions between people and institutions, and analyze the problem within the broader landscape of the field of investigation. Additionally, it facilitated the identification of cause-and-effect relationships and helped build a community of interest in the village. The extensive participation of the researcher allowed for the collection of irrefutable evidence against the group responsible for the problem of defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana (Office of the village-level revenue accountant) in Kathera village.
6.0.3 Interpretation of the results of Primary Phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation
The Research Practitioner compiled an evidence-based survey report by integrating findings from various research methods employed during the participatory field ethnography. According to the report, the defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana (Office of the Village-Level Revenue Accountant) in Kathera village resulted from the collective negligence within the revenue department of Kathua. The report called for disciplinary action against the responsible officials and emphasized the need to operationalize the Patwarkhana, thereby eliminating the necessity for separate interventions.
On March 23, 2019, the report was by uploaded on the portal of the Jammu and Kashmir Grievance Cell (www.jkgrievance.in) which in turn forwarded it to the General District Administration of Kathua (Revenue Department) on March 25, 2019. This presentation initiated the single-blind experimentation, as the officials were unaware that their natural official conduct was under rigorous scientific scrutiny and analysis. Throughout the process, the experimental subjects intricately maneuvered the survey report within the chain of command, repeatedly forwarding it to lower-ranking officials. In their final response, they employed psychological tactics such as circumlocution, double-bind communication, and obfuscation. Additionally, they falsely implicated another department to shield themselves from accountability. Notably, they denied administrative custody of the Patwarkhana building, claiming it had not been over to the revenue department by the concerned agency. They cited unsafe conditions within the building for maintaining land revenue records and confirmed the stay of Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) officials in the building of Patwarkhana who were engaged in the ongoing road construction.
The experimental subjects managed to navigate the survey report in the chain of command by repeatedly forwarding the report to the lower chain of command. In their final response on April 27, 2019, they used psychological tricks characterized by the circumlocution, double-bind communication, obfuscation and falsely implicating another department to shield their collective negligence to evade their accountability. They denied the administrative custody of the building of Patwarkhana by stating that the building has not been handed over to the revenue department and cited the unsafe conditions in the building for keeping land revenue record. Furthermore, they confirmed the stay of PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana) officials in the same building, who were actively engaged in the ongoing road construction. The authentic survey report prompted the revenue department officials to adopt a defensive stance, colluding to shield their collective negligence. Consequently, the Patwarkhana remained defunct and illegally occupied. Thus, with the conclusion of the first phase of Single-Blind Experimentation, the persistent problem of the defunct Patwarkhana persisted.
6.0.4 Interpretation of the interview conducted with the Block Development Officer, Kathua on July 11, 2019
On July 11, 2019, the research practitioner visited the Block Development Officer (BDO) in Kathua to inquire about the administrative custody of the Patwarkhana building in Village Kathera. During the meeting, the researcher provided background information regarding the defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana and the response given by the revenue officials. When asked whether any communication from the revenue department had been received regarding handing over the custody of the building, the BDO denied having received any official letter. He further explained that there was no provision, according to his knowledge, specifying the practice of handing over the entrance key of the building to the concerned department. According to the BDO Kathua, the Assistant Commissioner Development in Kathua releases funds to the Block Development Officer for implementing various approved works. After the completion of construction, it becomes the responsibility of the concerned department to assume custody and control of the building and its assets. The meeting concluded at 1415 H ours, and it became evident that the administrative custody of the Patwarkhana building rested with the revenue department.
6.0.5 Interpretation of the initial and final results of the Secondary Phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation
The Secondary Phase of Single-Blind Experimentation involved analyzing results from the Primary Phase and conducting an interview with the Block Development Officer in Kathua. The supplementary survey report reiterated earlier findings and dismissed responses from experimental subjects. Notably, the individuals residing in the Patwarkhana building in Kathera village were not PMGSY officials but family members of a migrant private labor supervisor. To address this issue, the researcher employed a “Naming and Shaming” strategy, highlighting the predecessors of incumbent revenue officers as mute spectators. Besides, it sought the intervention of the sharp and unbiased senior-level official to operationalize the defunct and illegally occupied building of Patwarkhana. The report was subsequently uploaded to the Jammu and Kashmir Grievance Cell website on July 12, 2019.The Deputy Commissioner acknowledged the report, took cognizance of the issue and directed the Tehsildar of Kathua to take immediate necessary action vide letter no. DCK/CMP/(Complaints)/2019-20/513-14 on July 20,2019.
Subsequent to the Deputy Commissioner’s directive, monitoring efforts commenced. A field visit to Kathera village on June 26, 2022 revealed that the Patwarkhana building remained both illegally occupied and defunct. In response, the researcher suggested that the community of interest provide a collective written statement. Prominent individuals from the village would acknowledge the issue of the defunct Patwarkhana, attributing it to the negligence of the revenue department by signing the statement collectively.
After obtaining the collective statement of the community, the researcher filed the case diary number 10384/IN/2020 on July 13, 2020 before the National Human Rights Commission-New Delhi to positively influence the desired final outcome of the secondary phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation. Subsequently, The National Human Rights Commission registered the Case No. 114/9/7/2020 on September 13, 2020 and sought the Action Taken Report (ATR) from the experimental subjects (General District Administration of Kathua) on September 17, 2020.
Finally, on January 1, 2021 the experimental subjects provided the same evasive response given by them during the Primary Phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation. The Deputy Commissioner first directed the Tehsildar to take necessary action and then pasted the same evasive reply after one year and five months.
By doing so, the Deputy Commissioner of Kathua dismissed the earlier directive issued by his office. In this way, the experimental subjects entrapped themselves because retracting from the official statements became impossible for them. Thus, it became evident that the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission was inefficient as the final outcome of the secondary phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation could not address the issue and the Patwarkhana remained defunct and illegally occupied. Confounding variables also caused negative final experimental results in the form of the persistence of the problem. Thus, it is crucial to highlight the underlying confounding variables affecting the final outcome of the secondary phase of single-blind experimentation and strengthening the deviant behavior of the experimental subjects. The three critical factors identified are:
(a) Imposition of Blanket suspension on the Internet services across J&K post abrogation of Article 370: To prevent the situation from flaring up and protecting lives, the government suspended the internet for several months across J&K. The deviant group took this ban as an arbitrariness enhancement exercise with brazen impunity.
(b) Covid-19 Induced Lockdown: The sudden announcement and imposition of the Covid-19 Lockdown across the country in the first quarter of 2020 and the subsequent mobility restrictions on the people further strengthened the collective belief of the deviant group subjected to experimentation to act defiant in contravention to all the laws and Constitution of India as the district functionaries were imposing restrictions on the mobility of the people to restrict the spread of infections.
(c) Lack of Elected Kashmir Government: The erstwhile princely state of Jammu and came under the President rule on November 21, 2018 following the dissolution of the elected State Assembly by the Governor and since then it is reeling under the President rule and functioning under the state-run bureaucracy. From November 2018-May 2024, there is no elected government.
The J&K Reorganization Act of 2019 divided the erstwhile Princely State of J&K into two union territories - Union Territory of J&K and Union Territory of Ladakh and brought a drastic change in the legal administrative framework.
Thus, the deviant experimental subjects or revenue functionaries in District Kathua capitalized on the three factors and became more arrogant and apathetic than ever before.
6.0.6 Interpretation of the post-experimental vigilance maintained on the administrative activities of the experimental subjects and the official rebuttal from the Executive Engineer, PMGSY Kathua regarding the stay of PMGSY officials in the building of Patwarkhana in Kathera village
Maintaining a keen vigilance on the administrative activities of the experimental subjects during the post-experimentation revealed the second intervention done by the National Human Rights Commission-New Delhi by seeking the Action-Taken-Report on August 17, 2021 from the General District Administration of Kathua and the news of directive of the Jammu and Kashmir Government to identify and remove the deadwood (Non-performing) officers from the service published in the news daily on September 19, 2021. It also included the observation of the order issued by the General Administration Department of the Jammu and Kashmir for the training of experimental subjects (officials of the revenue department, Kathua) in one-day online training under the Right to Information Act, 2005 on December 23, 2021. Similarly, the researcher filed a request with the Executive Engineer on December 24, 2021 under the Right to Information Act, 2005 after drafting the request and paying a fee of Rs.50 in the 0070 Account Head of Government Treasury Kathua to obtain the official rebuttal from the Executive Engineer, PMGSY Kathua regarding the stay of PMGSY officials in the building of Patwarkhana in village Kathera. Similarly, the Order number DCK/Adm/2021-22/1897-1957 on December 25, 2021 issued by Deputy Commissioner Kathua for the transfers of Patwaris (village-level revenue accountants) away from their home stations established that the Patwari in the Patwar-Halqa (revenue jurisdiction) of Kathera was fraudulently working in the defunct Patwarkhana on official records under the patronage of senior officials of the District Administration (Revenue-Department). Subsequently, the Executive Engineer of PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana, Division Kathua- An agency of the J&K Public Works Department, Roads & Buildings) officially rebutted the stay of his officials on January 15, 2022 vide letter number EE/PMGSY/KUA/2013. Thus, it became evident that the experimental subjects were spreading lies and falsely implicating the PMGSY department to legalize the stay of illegal occupants in the building of Patwarkhana to cover up their collective negligence. From 2019 to 2023, three phases of the Back to Village Programme were concluded and the Patwarkhana remained defunct. This Programme was aimed to improve the rural governance and involved the visits of government officers in the villages and instructing them to identify the issues and brings them to the notice of the district administration for remedial action. However, the Patwarkhana remained defunct despite the conclusion of three phases of Back to Village Programme in Kathera village.
6.0.7 Interpretation of the Tertiary Phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation
Keen vigilance maintained over the administrative activities and the arbitrariness coupled with professional misconduct and negligence exhibited by the experimental subjects during the Secondary Phase of the Single-Blind experimentation had provided enough qualitative evidence against the deviant subjects. Additionally, three phases of the Back-to-Village Programme launched by the experimental subjects failed to redress the issue of defunct Patwarkhana. Moreover, the official rebuttal issued by the Executive Engineer, PMGSY Kathua regarding the stay of their officials in the building had triangulated the subjects and the transfer of Patwari (Village-level Revenue Accountant) from the Patwar-Halqa (Revenue Jurisdiction) of Kathera established that the field functionary was fraudulently posted and working there. Moreover, the experimental subjects had entrapped themselves as retracting from their false official statements was not possible for them. Hence, Research Practitioner leveraged on these observations and created a Prisoner’s Dilemma for the experimental subjects by requesting them to share evidence against the incumbents and their predecessors for their collective negligence and professional misconduct.
This phase involved exerting more control on the experiment by strategically applying independent variables to create a Prisoner’s Dilemma for the powerful deviant subjects. Doing this required creating a real-life situation and making them share evidence against the incumbents and their predecessors for their collective wrongdoings and professional misconduct responsible for the defunct and illegally occupied building of Patwarkhana, Kathera.
The situation for them was like- If they provide documentary evidence to the experimenter about the past two phases of the Single-Blind experimentation, then the incumbents and predecessors of the experimental group would become legal offenders. On the other hand, if they suppress the requisite documents and form a collaboration to protect their collective interests and departmental image, it would be beneficial for them and vice-versa. In the previous two phases of the experimentation (2019-2021), the deviant group exhibited a high degree of group affinity characterized by their collusion, complacency, apathy and inaction. Hence, it was likely to remain constant in the final phase of the experiment. However, the trail of qualitative evidence collected against them in form of application of the independent variables was guaranteed to give a desired outcome after triangulating them.
To achieve this, a fee of Rs.50 was deposited in Account Head 0070 in the Government treasury on February 23, 2022, and the receipt was obtained. After drafting the questionnaire and attaching it to the treasury receipt, the researcher personally visited the Office of the Deputy Commissioner Kathua on February 28, 2022 and submitted the request under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The request was submitted in Room No-3, Ground Floor of the District Secretariat. After submitting the documents, the acknowledgement receipt No. 5552, Dated: 28.02.2022, was obtained from the DC Office Kathua. It initiated the Tertiary Phase of the Single-Blind Experimentation.
The tertiary phase of the experiment conducted in the first quarter of 2022 triangulated and compelled the deviant subjects of the revenue department, Kathua to open the defunct Patwarkhana. They confirmed that the defunct Patwarkhana in Village Kathera has become operational on March, 31, 2022. However, they suppressed the official letters bearing communication number DCK/CMP/55/ (Complaints)/2018-19/923-25 Dated: March 25, 2019, K/OQ/2019-20/69 Dated: April 25, 2019, DCK/CMP/ (Complaints)2019-20/513-14 Dated July 20,2019 issued by their offices during the previous two phases of the Single-blind experimentation from March, 2019- January, 2021. They also suppressed the printout copies of the Application number 999001107899 Dated March 23, 2019 and 999001202473 Dated July 12, 2019. It was the only for them to cover up their collective complacency, negligence and professional misconduct of the incumbents and their predecessors from March, 2019- January, 2022. Third experiment necessitated them to extend cooperation to each other to protect their collective interests and they colluded again to suppress the official records since sharing evidence against themselves was irrational and impossible for them. Similarly, it was beyond the control of the experimenter to prevent them from extending cooperation to each other as the experimental subjects were powerful administrative officers of the district, Kathua.
6.0.8 Interpretation of the Final Post-Experimental Monitoring Phase from March 2022 to May 2024
Three Phases of the Single-Blind Experimentation conducted on the deviant subjects had established that they are unreliable. Thus, it was unscientific to conclude the research project based solely on the official confirmation issued by the experimental subjects. Initially; they had denied the administrative custody of Patwarkhana in their reports in April 2019. Later, Deputy Commissioner Kathua directed Tehsildar to take immediate necessary action while processing the supplementary survey report during the second phase of the experimentation in July, 2019. However, on January 1, 2021 they denied the custody of the Patwarkhana once again. In this way, The Deputy Commissioner of Kathua dismissed his own directive by pasting the old response given during the Primary Phase of Single-Blind Experimentation.. Therefore, it became crucial to monitor the real-time functioning of the Patwarkhana in Kathera village by paying repeated field visits, collecting photographic and video evidence, obtaining telephonic reports from the Community of Interest and analyzing the impact of the interventions of the National Human Rights Commission-New Delhi.
Until, May 10, 2022, the feature to view, obtain and download acknowledgements was not available on the website (https://jkgrievance.in/AwazAAwam/index.aspx).Obtaining critical qualitative data was the key evidence posed a significant challenge as the deviant subjects had suppressed this data to protect their collective interests. Hence, it was important for the research practitioner to record the screen recording of the mentioned website and upload the same on You Tube for marking the constraint.
On June 2, 2022, The General Administration Department of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir issued an order no. 651-JK (GAD) of 2022 and passed the instructions to all the Administrative Secretaries/Head of Departments. The Directive mandates the implementation of bio-metric attendance for field functionaries including Patwaris, Panchayat Secretaries, Police Personnel, and Beat Guards etc. across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. As per the order, implementation was to be facilitated through information technology-based tools within a four-week timeframe.
The field visit to Village Kathera on June 3, 2022 revealed that the building of Patwarkhana was defunct despite the official confirmation given by the experimental subjects. The building was in dilapidated condition and locked. The National Human Rights Commission-New Delhi issued a Second Notice to the District Administration of Kathua for seeking on August 26, 2022 in Case No. 114/9/7/2020 and sought the Action Taken Report regarding the defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana of village Kathera. However, the experimental subjects paid no attention and did not care to submit any Action Taken Report (ATR) to the Commission.
In light of the inefficient results of three interventions done by the National Human Rights Commission, the researcher on October 8, 2022 shared the official confirmation provided by the experimental subjects regarding the functioning of Patwarkhana and requested the Commission to assign closure to the case thereby saving the time and resources of the Human Rights Body. It was a thoughtful decision to cease applying the inefficient independent variable after repeatedly seeing the unfavorable outcomes. Afterwards, Back to Village Programme Phase-4 launched by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir to improve the rural governance began from October 27, 2022 to November 3, 2022 in District Kathua along with the Celebration of the Vigilance Awareness Week (October 31, 2022 to November 6, 2022). However, the fields visit to Village Kathera on November 21, 2022 revealed that the building of Patwarkhana was defunct despite the celebration of Vigilance Awareness Week and the conclusion of Back to Village Programme Phase-4. Thus, it became evident that the Patwari (Village-level Revenue Accountant) was marking the present fraudulently as the building was defunct and locked, lacking any power connection. Field Visit conducted on the International Anti-Corruption Day (November 3, 2022) also established the defunct status of the Patwarkhana. On November 4, 2022, The National Human Rights Commission-New Delhi confirmed the closure of the Case No.114/9/7/2020 on October 8, 2022 regarding the defunct and illegally occupied Patwarkhana in Kathera village. Similarly, telephonic reports obtained from the Community of Interest in the months of January, April, August, and December 2024 consistently established that the Patwarkhana was defunct. Furthermore, the field visits conducted on January 25, 2024 and May 15, 2024 included interviews with the Community of Interest and other people in addition to the photographic evidence collected unequivocally established that the Patwarkhana (Office of the Village-Level Revenue Accountant) was defunct and merely functional on papers only and the official confirmation about the functioning of Patwarkhana provided by the experimental subjects during the Tertiary Phase of the Single-Blind Experiment was totally false. During the final field-visit, the researcher briefed the community of interest about the results, expressed gratitude for their support and took consent from them for publishing this research project spanning March 2019-May 2024 in the public interest.