Regional
Land registration hit hard in Bihar after Nov 8
Patna: Sambhu Prasad Singh, a deed writer, is worried as registration rates for plots of land and flats in Bihar have fallen drastically after the demonetisation on November 8. There are 124 registry offices across Bihar. At the Patna registry office both flat and shop registrations have been badly affected.
This has led to a steep dip in Singh’s and his half-a-dozen agents’ earnings. They are struggling for livelihood. “It is not only my story. Demonetisation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has caused a havoc for deed writers, their agents and others directly or indirectly dependant on land deals at registry offices across the state,” Singh, a resident of Kankarbagh here, told IANS.
Janesar Akhtar, another deed writer here, said the ongoing cash crunch was bound to hit them hard. “Where is cash with people to go for land or flat registration? Demonetisation has taken away everything. It will take months for the situation to become normal again,” Akhtar said.
He showed serious reservation about the Centre’s claim of making things normal by 2017. Apart from deed writers and their associates, state governments own revenue earning was also hit due to low registration of land plots and flats after November 8.
“Land registrations figure shows that there has been a dip of nearly 32 per cent from November 8 to November 24 as per the records of registry offices,” an official of the registration department told IANS. According to the state government’s data, from October 25 to November 8 the number of land registrations in Bihar was 22,178, while it has dwindled to 15,118 between November 9 to November 24.
“In the first week after demonetisation, hardly any registrations happened, but later it slowly improved in view of the cash flow,” an official said. “The state revenue earning also decreased. In October, the state government earned Rs 169.36 crore through 54,769 land and flat registrations. But in November, the registration numbers fell to 26,251, roughly half of the October number, and the government earned merely 83.17 crore,” the official said.
A senior official of registration department, A.K. Das admitted that the number of registrations has decreased after demonetisation. “It is an outcome of lack of cash flow in the market,” he said. Das said only 10 to 12 per cent of registry fee and stamp duty can be deposited online and other duties are usually in cash.
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.