Signing Off the ‘Maharashtra: 60 Facts’ Wall Poster
A gram panchayat in Buldhana district is printing a one-page Marathi wall poster titled “महाराष्ट्र: ६० तथ्ये” for a revenue-literacy week. The content was supplied by the sarpanch's nephew. The Talathi is asked to sign it off before printing. Four draft lines read: (1) “महाराष्ट्रात ६ महसूल विभाग आणि ३६ जिल्हे आहेत.” (2) “सोलापूर जिल्हा अमरावती विभागात येतो.” (3) “लोणार सरोवर बुलढाणा जिल्ह्यात आहे.” (4) “महाराष्ट्राचा राज्यप्राणी वाघ आहे.” Other lines give the state bird as हरियाल and the state tree as आंबा. The footer says “स्रोत: व्हॉट्सअॅप ग्रुप, २०२३”. The printer needs the final file by tomorrow morning. The office has no internet; the cupboard holds a 2019 district gazetteer, a current district census handbook and the panchayat's own village map.
1. Test each of the four lines and correct what is wrong.
Read the worked answer
- Correct. Maharashtra has six revenue divisions (Mumbai/Konkan, Pune, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Amravati, Nagpur) and 36 districts. Verify against the gazetteer before printing, since district counts change.
- Wrong. Solapur falls in Pune division. Amravati division covers Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana and Washim. Correct the line.
- Correct. Lonar crater lake is in Buldhana district - and it is local, so it is the best line on the poster.
- Wrong. The state animal is the Indian giant squirrel (शेकरू), not the tiger; the tiger is the national animal. The state bird (हरियाल) and state tree (आंबा) as printed are correct, and the state flower is जारूळ - worth adding if space allows. Two of four lines fail. That alone is enough to send the whole sheet back rather than correct only what is visible.
2. What sourcing rule should govern the remaining 56 lines, given no internet and a deadline?
Read the worked answer
Rule: print only what the office can show a source for. The order of preference here: (i) the latest district gazetteer and the current census handbook in the cupboard; (ii) the panchayat's own records and village map for local facts; (iii) the Talathi's own knowledge only for stable, textbook-level facts (divisions, district headquarters, rivers, state symbols). Anything that cannot be traced to (i) or (ii) and is not stable - numbers of schemes, beneficiaries, award winners, ranking positions - is dropped, not guessed. Drop the line rather than print it with a hedge; a poster cannot carry a footnote saying “approximately”. Add a dated line at the foot: “माहिती जिल्हा गॅझेटियर व जिल्हा जनगणना हस्तपुस्तिका यांवर आधारित; स्थिती: [दिनांक]”. That protects the office when a figure later changes.
3. May the poster go out with “स्रोत: व्हॉट्सअॅप ग्रुप, २०२३” in the footer?
Read the worked answer
No. The poster is issued from a government office during a revenue-literacy drive; a reader will treat its contents as official. An unnamed, unverifiable source transfers no authority and admits that nothing was checked - and in this case the sheet did in fact carry two errors. If any line is traced to the gazetteer or the census handbook, cite those instead, with the year. If a line cannot be sourced, the answer is deletion, not a weaker citation. Practical point: the Talathi signs the file, so the responsibility for the two wrong lines would sit with him, not with the nephew who typed them.