Punjab Patwari cheat sheet

Punjab Legislative Assembly has 117 seats; a simple majority is 59. The state sends 13 members to the Lok Sabha and 7 to the Rajya Sabha.

Punjab has 23 districts; the newest are Malerkotla (created 2021) and the reorganised Mohali/SAS Nagar. Divisions: Jalandhar, Patiala, Firozepur, Faridkot and Rupnagar.

Constitutional posts: Governor is appointed by the President; the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor and must command a majority in the Assembly.

Key national institutions: RBI (1935, nationalised 1949), NITI Aayog (2015, replaced Planning Commission), SEBI (1988, statutory 1992), Supreme Court (1950).

Fundamental Rights sit in Part III (Articles 12-35); Directive Principles in Part IV (36-51); Fundamental Duties in Article 51A added by the 42nd Amendment (1976).

Current-affairs anchors for Punjab: paddy procurement and MSP, stubble-burning policy, Indus Waters Treaty disputes, Bhakra-Nangal and canal water sharing, and the Kartarpur Corridor.

Indian census 2011: Punjab population about 2.77 crore, literacy about 75.8%, sex ratio about 895 females per 1000 males.

Nobel and global honours linked to Punjab: Rabindranath Tagore (1913, not Punjabi) versus Amrita Pritam (Jnanpith 1956) - do not confuse literary awards.

Five rivers give Punjab its name: Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Chenab and Jhelum. Only Sutlej and Beas flow through Indian Punjab; Chenab and Jhelum lie in Pakistan.

Sikh Gurus: Guru Nanak (1469-1539), Guru Gobind Singh (tenth, founded Khalsa in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib), Guru Granth Sahib is the eternal Guru thereafter.

Key Sikh landmarks: Golden Temple (Amritsar, founded by Guru Ram Das), Akal Takht (Guru Hargobind), Anandpur Sahib, Damdama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo), Nankana Sahib (Pakistan).

Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) captured Lahore in 1799 and was crowned Maharaja in 1801; his empire fell after the Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845-46, 1848-49) and annexation in 1849.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre: 13 April 1919, Amritsar, under General Dyer; led to the Non-Cooperation Movement. Partition in 1947 split Punjab; 1966 reorganisation created Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.

Folk culture: Bhangra and Giddha dances, dhol, tumbi and algoza instruments; Waris Shah's Heer, Bulleh Shah's kafis, Shiv Kumar Batalvi's Luna.

Geography: Shiwalik foothills in the north-east, fertile alluvial plains, and semi-arid south-west. Highest point is in the Shiwaliks; no major hill station lies in the plains.

Climate: continental monsoon type; rainfall decreases from about 700 mm in the north-east to under 400 mm in the south-west. Canal irrigation dominates the south-west, tubewells the centre.

Percentage change = (new - old)/old x 100. Successive changes of a% and b% give net change a + b + ab/100.

Simple interest = P x R x T / 100. Compound interest = P[(1 + R/100)^T - 1]; for 2 years the difference between CI and SI equals P(R/100)^2.

Speed = distance/time; 1 km/h = 5/18 m/s. Trains: time to cross a pole = length/speed; to cross a platform = (length + platform)/speed.

Work: if A finishes in x days and B in y days, together they take xy/(x + y) days. Pipes filling and emptying use the same reciprocal logic with opposite signs.

Averages: sum = average x number. For consecutive numbers the average equals the middle term; adding a value k to every item raises the average by k.

Ratio and mixture: alligation rule gives ratio of quantities = (mean price - cheaper) : (dearer - mean price).

Reasoning series: check differences, then ratios, then squares/cubes, then alternating patterns. Coding-decoding uses letter positions A=1 to Z=26 with reversal (A=26) as a common variant.

Blood relations and direction sense: draw a diagram; for directions remember left/right reverses when the person faces south. Syllogism: valid only if the conclusion holds in every possible Venn diagram.

Subject-verb agreement: singular subject takes singular verb; 'one of the + plural noun' takes a singular verb ('One of the boys is here').

Articles: 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds (an hour, a university). 'The' with superlatives, rivers, ranges, and unique things.

Tenses: present perfect (has/have + past participle) for past action with present relevance; past perfect (had + participle) for the earlier of two past actions.

Prepositions of time: in (months, years), on (days, dates), at (clock time). Fixed pairs: depend on, comply with, capable of, prefer to, married to.

Active to passive: object becomes subject, verb becomes be + past participle, agent introduced by 'by'. Only transitive verbs can be made passive.

Direct to indirect speech: present tense shifts to past; 'said to' becomes 'told'; 'this' becomes 'that'; 'tomorrow' becomes 'the next day'.

Common error traps: 'discuss about', 'return back', 'more better', 'each of the students are' - all wrong. Use 'discuss', 'return', 'better', 'each ... is'.

Idioms for exams: 'at the eleventh hour' (last moment), 'a bolt from the blue' (sudden shock), 'to burn the midnight oil' (study late), 'to turn a deaf ear' (ignore).

Gurmukhi script has 35 primary letters (Painti Akhri): 8 vowels (swar) and 27 consonants (vyanjan), plus six additional letters for Arabic/Persian sounds.

Vowel signs (lagan matra): mukta (inherent a), kanna (aa), sihari (i), bihari (ii), onkar (u), dulainkar (uu), lavan (e), dulavan (ai), hora (o), kanaura (au).

Nasalisation uses tippi (short) and bindi (long/silent); addak ( ੱ ) doubles the following consonant; visarga ( ੍) suppresses the inherent vowel.

Gurmukhi is written left to right; the line above letters is the shirorekha. Standard script was formalised by Guru Angad Dev; printing standard follows the Punjabi University, Patiala conventions.

Noun gender: Punjabi has masculine and feminine. Plural masculine usually adds -ਾਂ (ਕੁੜੀਆਂ is feminine); verb agrees with gender and number.

Postpositions follow the noun: ਨੇ (ergative, with transitive past), ਨੂੰ (to/accusative), ਦਾ/ਦੀ/ਦੇ (of), ਵਿੱਚ (in), ਤੇ (on), ਤੋਂ (from).

Tense markers: present continuous uses ਰਿਹਾ/ਰਹੀ/ਰਹੇ + auxiliary; simple past transitive takes ne + past participle (ਮੈਂ ਖਾਣਾ ਖਾਧਾ).

Vocabulary pairs often tested: ਪਾਣੀ (water), ਧਰਤੀ (earth), ਅਸਮਾਨ (sky), ਕਿਤਾਬ (book), ਸਕੂਲ (school), ਜਮੀਨ (land), ਕਿਸਾਨ (farmer), ਹਕੂਮਤ (government).

Jamabandi is the record of rights (periodic register) showing owner, cultivator, khasra number, area and crop share; it is revised periodically, commonly every five years.

Khasra number identifies a plot; khatauni is the register of cultivators grouped by khata (account). Shajra kishtwar is the field map showing plot boundaries.

Fard is a copy/extract of a jamabandi or khasra entry issued to a right-holder; intqal (mutation) records change of ownership on the register.

Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 governs land revenue administration, record-of-rights, and mutation procedure; the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887 governs landlord-tenant relations.

Revenue hierarchy: Financial Commissioner (Revenue) at state level, Divisional Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner (District Collector), Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Tehsildar, Naib Tehsildar, Kanungo and Patwari.

The Patwari (village accountant) maintains village records, reports crops, records mutations and births/deaths in land, and assists in revenue collection; the Kanungo supervises a circle of Patwaris.

Mutation procedure: application or report to Patwari, entry in register, notice to interested parties, verification by Kanungo/Tehsildar, sanction by the competent revenue officer, then update of jamabandi.

Consolidation of holdings and land acquisition are separate proceedings; the Punjab Consolidation of Holdings Act and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, 2013 (central) apply respectively.