Crackdown on fake crop registrations in Haryana; minister suspends patwaris of Shambli and Amupur villages

Cracking down on large-scale manipulation of agricultural records, Public Health Engineering and Public Works Minister Ranbir Gangwa on Wednesday ordered the immediate suspension of the patwaris of Shambli and Amupur villages.

The minister also directed the recovery of government funds wrongfully claimed, if any, through these false entries. Show-cause notices have been issued to both sarpanches of the villages, questioning why they provided OTP verification without ensuring whether the land was actually cultivable.

The OTP is a mandatory step in the MFMB registration process and should be validated only after necessary checks, an official said.

This action was taken based on a consolidated report prepared by three officials—District Revenue Officer (DRO), Deputy Director of Agriculture (DDA), and District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO)—and presented before the District Public Relations and Grievance Redressal Committee, which met under the chairmanship of the minister at Panchayat Bhawan.

The inquiry allegedly exposed fraudulent crop registrations on non-cultivable panchayat land. The report revealed that paddy and wheat were fraudulently shown as cultivated during 2023-24 and 2024-25 on land that is officially marked as non-cultivable. Despite this status, the land was deliberately uploaded and registered on the Meri Fasal Mera Byora (MFMB) portal, the report said.

DDPO Kanchan Lata and DDA Dr Wazir Singh presented the report and said that six acres in Amupur and 24 acres in Shambli were falsely recorded as cultivated.

An official clarified that patwaris are responsible for blocking non-cultivable land on the MFMB portal to prevent misuse, but their failure enabled these fraudulent entries.

Reiterating the government’s zero-tolerance stance, he said, “In both Shambli and Amupur, wrongful and excessive crop registrations were done. The patwaris failed in their core duty, and action will be taken against them. It was the duty of the patwaris to block the non-cultivable land so that it would not appear on the MFMB portal, but this was not done. I have instructed the Deputy Commissioner to suspend the patwaris concerned.”

Besides suspending the patwaris, the minister ordered that recovery proceedings be initiated against the beneficiaries who registered crops on this land. He specifically mentioned the case of a man named Ishwar, who allegedly showed extra cultivable land by registering crops on panchayat and other non-agricultural land across two seasons—2023-24 and 2024-25. “Directions have been issued to recover the full amount, if availed, from him; failing which, a criminal case will be registered,” the minister said.

Deputy Commissioner Uttam Singh confirmed that the investigation will continue. The district authorities have also strengthened monitoring of MFMB entries to prevent misuse of panchayat land and ensure transparency in crop registration, he added.

The minister was chairing the District Grievance Redressal Committee meeting, during which seven complaints were resolved on the spot, while six are pending and have been kept pending for the next meeting.

Responding to a question about the Lado Lakshmi Yojana, he said that the second installment of the scheme was released today by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. “The CM has fulfilled a key election promise by allocating Rs 5,000 crore in the very first budget,” he added.

On the issue of road safety, Gangwa said that the state has been actively addressing public complaints received through the Mhari Sadak mobile application.

“Recently, more than 7,000 complaints were received on the app, out of which 4,000 have already been resolved. Any citizen can lodge a road-related complaint, which is then forwarded to the concerned SDO or XEN for time-bound action,” he explained.