Over 50 complaints have been lodged on the sudden disappearance of the names of bargadars (sharecroppers) from digital land records, prompting the administration to order inquiries into each case and the restoration of the data within seven days.

The mysterious deletion of the names has stumped the administration ahead of the July 8 panchayat elections. The complaints were mainly lodged with the land and land reforms department.

"The department has ordered inquiries into each of the complaints, besides the restoration of the names of the bargadars in the digital records within seven days,” said an official attached to the directorate of land records.

According to sources, preliminary investigations revealed that the names were not deleted at the block or district level.

“So, it is assumed that the records were changed by accessing the central database under the control of the directorate of land records located at the Survey Building in Alipore, Calcutta. A detailed investigation has to be carried out whether the database is being accessed by someone from outside or it is an insider’s job,” said a source.

The deletion of the names of bargadars is a very sensitive issue in rural Bengal as nearly 12 lakh landless families depend on the plots recorded against their names as sharecroppers. The government is worried because the complaints are coming from almost all districts ahead of the rural polls.

The deletion of the name of a bargadar from the land records means the plot concerned becomes free from encumbrances and the owner can sell the same or change its character according to his/her wish. The West Bengal Land Reforms Act does not allow the removal of barga (plot earmarked for sharecroppers) from the records. If the bargadar fails to meet the criteria like sharing crops with the owner or failing to cultivate the land, he/she can be ousted and a new landless person can be given the barga in his place.

“So, this can be compared to the forceful acquisition of land from the landless farmers… This is why the government, which has a hands-off land policy, ordered investigations,” said a source.

Giving cultivable land to the landless so that they can earn a livelihood remained a political issue in Bengal since Independence. After the Left Front came to power in 1977, it worked on the issue seriously by launching Operation Barga. The government took over the ceiling surplus land by plugging loopholes that had previously allowed exemptions to the ceiling for religious and charitable trusts, plantations and fisheries. Furthermore, the government gave protection to sharecroppers from eviction and recorded their names by amending respective laws.

The Trinamul Congress government also followed the same path and took initiatives to protect the interests of the bargadars.

“This is why the issue has the potential to become a threat to the ruling party. So far, about 50 such complaints have been received, but the government has realised that if steps are not taken immediately, it can leave the ruling establishment in trouble,” said a senior bureaucrat.

The sources said some sharecroppers had lodged complaints that they had come to know that the owners were being offered to make their plots free from encumbrances by evicting them against a payment of Rs 30,000 per one decimal (1/100 of an acre) of land.

“If this is true, it makes it clear that there is a racket and the land records are being changed by breaching cyber security.… The government has taken up the issue seriously,” said a senior government official.