1 Rationale:
This research project aimed to open the defunct and illegally occupied building of Patwarkhana (Office of the Village Revenue Accountant in the Village Kathera) in the public interest. Because the residents of the main village Kathera, Kumri, Androt, Fafal, Sangan, Punwari, Bhed Blore, Tipri, Alari, Dral, Sher Kotla were forced to travel to the main town of Kathua to avail of the revenue-department-related services. To achieve the aim warranted the completion of the Basic Research. Besides, it was crucial to document the natural conduct of the functionaries of the revenue department in real-world settings to investigate the underlying factors responsible for the hierarchical negligence exercised by the revenue department that led to the defunct and occupied building of Patwarkhana since its construction.
Additionally, it was the only way to check the authenticity of the compiled evidence-based basic research report compiled by the different research methods. Moreover, it was interesting to document the group behavior to see whether the senior revenue officers would take disciplinary action against the errant functionaries and to assess their nepotism, process-oriented or result-oriented work culture.
Achieving this required sharing the evidence-based research report with the officials of revenue department and prompting them to respond called Single-Blind Field Experimentation because the experimental subjects were unaware of the ongoing study. It was bound to generate additional qualitative evidence derived from government sources. This project adheres to the Sustainable Development Goal No. 16, which aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions.
1.2 Ethical Considerations:
The study employs a single-blinded research design. Hence, the experimental subjects were unaware due to the secretive nature of the study. Maintaining secrecy on the project was critically important to allow them to act naturally thereby gaining profound insights into their work culture and assess their empathy for others. This research work is self-explanatory as all the pieces of qualitative evidence are embedded in this publication.
Although, the experimental results alone are enough to prove the findings. However, the secondary data impart a deeper and more holistic understanding about the professional misconduct of the experimental subjects and helps to corroborate the research findings .The contents derived from the different sources amounts to fair usage and do not cause any copyright infringement since the purpose is to enhance the context and provide additional evidence for the scrutiny of critics. All the data sets used in the study have been acknowledged by citing their sources. However, the data belonging to third-parties and its availability and accessibility on the internet cannot be ensured by the researcher. The readers while clicking the hyperlink of any Uniform Resource Locator are requested to exercise due prudence as the mentioned hyperlinks are beyond the control of the research author.
The research practitioner obtained the consent of the Community of Interest for their participation in the project and assured them that their identities would be protected and shall only be used with the government alone and would not be circulated to the General Public. During the research, it was the responsibility to protect the identity of the participants. Now, after the completion of the project, the concerned stakeholders of the Union Government of India and the research fraternity shall be ethically responsible to uphold the same commitment.