JAGATSINGHPUR: The Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department has lodged FIRs against surveyors in seven police stations of Jagatsinghpur district for allegedly submitting fabricated survey of cropland and sought strict action.
The e-Chasa app and portal was launched by the Odisha government in 2024 to promote digital survey in agriculture to facilitate crop production and processing. The digital platform was to encourage accurate agriculture and non-agriculture land data to assess crop coverage and irrigation methods across the state.
Paddy is cultivated over approximately 86,220 hectare in the district. The department deployed more than 100 land surveyors to conduct field verification under Digital Crop Survey (DCS) through the e-Chasa app.
However, surveyors allegedly submitted manipulated and false data, depriving the department of reliable information. In this connection, in three police stations of Erasama, Tirtol and Raghunathpur police stations, cases have been lodged against as many as 18 land surveyors.
During a review, it was found that surveyors had reported completing more than 400 field verifications per day, a number considered impossible. Verification revealed blurred and improperly aligned images, a mismatch between crop photographs and submitted data and errors in recording intercropping, fallow land and monocropping details. Officials concluded that the app was misused to submit fabricated data.
Investigation also showed that some surveyors were not residents of the district, and IDs issued to them had been misused by others. As a result, the very purpose of government’s digital survey initiative was undermined.
Chief district agriculture officer (in-charge) Biswajeet Panda lodged an FIR with Erasama police and directed other assistant agriculture officers to file FIRs against the surveyors. The false data not only impacts the department but also the state government, district administration and the farmers, Panda said.
“Due to the act of the land surveyors, the very motto of the govt in Digital Crop Survey in e-Chasa app is defeated and hampering the public service delivery,” his FIR stated.
Erasama police registered cases against six land surveyors under sections 316(2), 319(2), 336(3), and 340(2)(3)(5) of BNS. Similarly, assistant agriculture officer of Tirtol, Subhalaxmi Das, lodged an FIR against two surveyors for conducting 300 surveys per day during kharif 2025-26, following which Tirtol police registered a case. Cases have also been registered in other five police stations, though no arrests have been made so far.
Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Tirtol Chinmaya Rout confirmed that cases have been filed against 18 land surveyors under Tirtol, Raghunathpur, and Erasama police limits. “No one has been arrested yet, as the inquiry is still underway,” he added.