The Patan district administration has swung into action following an OpIndia report highlighting how the name of a locality, named Jhapatpara, in the Harij municipality area, was changed to ‘Islampura’ without any official authorisation. Locals told OpIndia that even official government documents like ration cards now mention the locality as Islampura. OpIndia was the first to investigate the matter on the ground and speak with residents.
The controversial development came to light when members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and residents expressed their outrage over widespread discrepancies regarding the name of the locality in the ration cards. After the Hindu organisations and locals protested, OpIndia spoke with them and published a detailed report exposing the entire matter. OpIndia’s investigation revealed that the digital ration cards of approximately 48 families residing in the Jhapatpara area, located near Harij Cinema Road, showed the altered name of the locality.
Officials took action following the OpIndia report
After OpIndia conducted a detailed investigation and highlighted the matter, the authorities initiated action. Patan Collector Prashant Jilova and Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) DK Majtar have ordered the Harij Mamlatdar to conduct an immediate investigation into the matter. Harij In-charge Mamlatdar Virendra Vamdev stated that online verification has commenced after residents submitted their objections. The process has been initiated to remove the name ‘Islampura’ and restore the traditional name ‘Jhapatpara’ across all government records and digital ration cards within the next two days.
However, the district administration and officials are attempting to downplay the serious issue, dismissing it as merely a ‘technical or data entry error.’ According to the administration, during the 2011 digitisation process, when new barcode-enabled ration cards were being created to replace old ones, some applicants listed ‘Islampura’ (the area surrounding the local mosque) as their address on the forms; computer operators then mistakenly uploaded this as the name of the entire village or locality. However, the situation reeks of a deliberate conspiracy rather than a mere documentary error.
‘Technical error’ or conspiracy!
No matter how much the administration attempts to downplay the issue by dismissing it as a ‘technical error’ dating back 15 years, the ground reality suggests otherwise; such an error is simply not plausible. A computer or software cannot suddenly rename an area traditionally inhabited by a Hindu population. While a standard technical or typographical error might result in misspelt words or transposed characters, it cannot transform a name like ‘Jhapatpara’ into ‘Islampura’.
This is neither an accident nor a mere clerical error; there is a strong suspicion of a deliberate conspiracy to alter the area’s cultural and geographical identity by manipulating government records. Instead of merely applying superficial corrections, it is essential to conduct a high-level legal inquiry to determine who was responsible for this negligence, and whether there was collusion among the officials or administrators in charge back in 2011, and why this situation was allowed to persist for so many years.
