To
Hon’ble Shri Nitin Nabin, MP
National President, Bharatiya Janata Party,
6A, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi – 110002
Subject: Urgent and humble request for review of the functioning of Ministers of Revenue & Disaster Management and Law Departments, Government of Odisha – Unabated harassment of Senior Citizens, poor families and emergence of a non-political Gen-X Movement.
Respected Sir,
With profound respect, deep faith and high hope in your dynamic and people-centric leadership, on behalf of the senior citizens, poor and middle-class families of Bhubaneswar*, I beg to place the following for your kind and immediate intervention.
The people of Odisha reposed immense faith in the Bharatiya Janata Party and gave a historic and decisive mandate with the fond hope that decades-old sufferings of common citizens would be redressed with sensitivity, compassion, transparency and accountability. However, even after more than two years of governance, the ground-level delivery and grievance redressal system remains not only unsatisfactory but has become a source of severe harassment, especially to senior citizens, war veterans and poor families.
The helplessness is so acute that the peace-loving senior citizens of Bhubaneswar have now resolved to start a non-political, digital and democratic Gen-X Movement for justice. This letter is a sincere attempt to apprise you before such movement spreads.
We most humbly request you to review the performance of certain Ministers, whose deliberate inaction and oppressive litigation policy is causing widespread agony.
- Total Collapse of Citizen Grievance Redressal System – Senior Citizens Running from Pillar to Post:
There is no effective and time-bound grievance redressal mechanism for common people.
a) Thousands of emails sent to official departmental IDs remain unattended without even an acknowledgment. Senior citizens who are not tech-savvy are left in distress.
b) The state of CPGRAMS in Odisha is most disheartening. Despite clear and strict instructions from Hon’ble PMO to dispose of grievances within 30 days with a speaking order, complaints are kept pending for months and closed with mechanical, non-speaking replies.
c) The official email account of the Hon’ble Revenue Minister is defunct for months as his mailbox is full due to non-monitoring. All emails are bouncing back. Where shall a 70-year-old citizen go?
d) For the Secretariat-level Revenue Department Headquarters, there is no grievance portal at all except CPGRAMS, which is not monitored by senior officers, particularly the Principal Secretary.
A recently launched field-level portal is non-functional.
A simple glance at the CPGRAMS disposal and pendency data of Odisha will reveal the scale of harassment and helplessness.
- Revenue & Disaster Management and Law Departments – The Epicentre of Harassment to Senior Citizens:
This Department is failing on two critical counts:
a) Disaster Relief: Timely and adequate relief does not reach the poor during floods and cyclones.
b) Land Records – A Nightmare for Senior Citizens: There is total absence of regulation and settlement of land records. The Department is losing almost all land cases before the Hon’ble High Court of Odisha, yet continues its oppressive litigation.
The most painful aspect is the deliberate harassment of Senior Citizens through discriminatory litigation policy:
Even after the Hon’ble High Court quashes the illegal action of the Revenue Department, the Department does not implement the judgment uniformly. A blatantly dual and discriminatory policy is being adopted:
- If the beneficiary is rich, influential and powerful estate owner – the High Court judgment is implemented overnight without any appeal.
- If the beneficiary is a poor, middle-class or senior citizen – the same judgment is NOT implemented. Instead, the Revenue and Law Departments selectively and vindictively file Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, knowing fully well that the matter is covered and weak.
This is nothing but State-sponsored harassment of the most vulnerable.
The consequences are devastating for a 65+ senior citizen:
i) Financial Ruin: Forced to spend his hard-earned pension and life savings to engage lawyers from High Court to Supreme Court.
ii) Mental Agony and Physical Harassment: Compelled to run from Bhubaneswar to Delhi at this age.
iii) Waste of Public Exchequer: Filing SLPs in settled matters results in colossal waste of public money and precious judicial time.
iv) Erosion of Trust: The Supreme Court itself has dismissed such SLPs and remanded matters, yet the State continues to file SLPs against remand orders. Such aggressive litigation is never pursued against big land mafia. This selective harassment is socially abhorrent, legally unsustainable and politically unacceptable in a BJP-ruled, pro-people Government.
It is this unbearable harassment which is forcing senior citizens to think of a Gen-X Movement.
- Pathargadia Mouza – An Illustrative Case of Agony of Hundreds of Senior Citizens:
During settlement, Assistant Settlement Officers issued “Parcha” (Draft Patta) in many mouzas including Pathargadia, Bhubaneswar. As per law, if no objection is filed within three months even by Government, Parcha must be finalized. In Pathargadia, no objection was filed by anyone, including Government.
Shockingly, instead of finalizing it, authorities illegally recorded those lands as Government land. The Hon’ble High Court in dozens of writ petitions has directed finalization of such Parchas. Government has accepted many of those orders and did not challenge them.
As per settled law, when a judgment lays down a general principle, it must be applied uniformly to all similarly situated persons. But the Department extends benefit only to a few, denying the same to hundreds of poor and middle-class senior citizens who purchased land in good faith, built small houses and are now unable to get building plan approval. They are living in constant fear of demolition.
- Board of Revenue’s Recent Order – Adding to Confusion:
Recently, the Member, Board of Revenue, Odisha, without verifying High Court decisions, directed review of records already confirmed by High Court.
For instance, in Gothapatana, Bhubaneswar, 5 acres of Govt. lease land was sold within 3 months of grant. The Member set aside the transfer observing “Govt. lease land cannot be sold during lease period.”
Our respectful submission in light of High Court law is:
Hon’ble High Court has consistently held that if the lease deed prohibits transfer for 10 years, transfer is permissible after 10 years. The real questions are: How was sale deed registered within 3 months? How did Sub-Registrar allow it? Why did Tahasildar not resume the land at that time? This exposes deep-rooted corruption and failure in the Revenue Department, not the fault of the bona fide purchaser. A blanket order to reopen settled records harasses innocent senior citizens who purchased in good faith.
- Non-conversion of Kissam Gharabari – A Deliberate Tool of Harassment:
The Tahasildar, Bhubaneswar granted RoR with Stitiban status as per High Court orders, but selectively converts some plots to Gharabari and rejects others arbitrarily, despite both being in the same BDA approved layout. Appeals are pending before ADM, Bhubaneswar for more than 2 years after hearing.
Last year, a circular was issued to treat leaseholders as Pattadar. The Tahasildar is implementing it retrospectively to reopen decades-old settled cases only to harass public. The Hon’ble High Court has held that retrospective implementation is illegal, but Tahasildar and ADM do not care to follow High Court orders. A senior citizen who built a house 20 years ago is now told his land is not Gharabari.
This is not mere administrative failure; this is conscious, deliberate and systematic harassment of senior citizens.
PRAYER:
In view of the above heart-rending facts, we most humbly and earnestly pray that you may kindly be pleased to:
- Order a comprehensive and time-bound review of the functioning of Ministers of Revenue & Disaster Management and Law Departments, Govt. of Odisha, specifically on the issue of harassment to senior citizens and poor families;
- Issue strict directions for time-bound disposal of all CPGRAMS and email grievances with reasoned, speaking orders;
- Direct the State Government to immediately stop the practice of filing selective SLPs in weak and settled matters and to implement High Court judgments uniformly in letter and spirit;
- Direct ADM, Bhubaneswar to dispose of all pending Gharabari conversion appeals within 30 days and to convert Gharabari status uniformly in all BDA approved areas where Stitiban status has been granted as per High Court ruling;
- Constitute a Special Mechanism/Task Force to finalize all pending Parchas of Pathargadia and other mouzas in compliance with High Court orders within a fixed time frame; and
- Ensure that governance in Odisha truly reflects the BJP’s sacred commitment to “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Nyaya” and that no senior citizen is forced to resort to a Gen-X Movement for his legitimate rights.
We have full faith that under your compassionate leadership, the cries of helpless senior citizens of Odisha will be heard and justice will be delivered.
With deepest regards and gratitude,
Yours faithfully,
Chitta Ranjan Bhuian
General Secretary
Pathargadia Sikharachandi Vihar Unnayan Parisada, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Mobile: 9437178184
E-mail crbhuyan78184@gmail.com
Date: 2nd September 2026