Veeri emphasizes strong mechanism for disposal of public related revenue cases

Chairs 3^rd Revenue Conference in Jammu Division

RAMBAN, DECEMBER 20: Minister for Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation & Reconstruction and Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rehman Veeri, today stressed upon the field functionaries of Revenue Department to lay focussed attention to deliver services to people under Public Service Guarantee Act and redress the revenue related issues of the people in a time bound manner.

          The Minister was addressing the officers and officials of Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts, here today.

          MLA Ramban, Neelam Kumar Langeh was also present on the occasion.

          The Meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner Lokesh Jha, Commissioner Secretary Revenue Shahid Inaytullah, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Dr M K Bhandari, Deputy Commissioner Ramban Tariq Ganai, Deputy Commissioner Doda Bhawani Rakwal, Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar Angrez Singh Rana, Regional Director, Survey & Land Records Chenab Valley, Mohammed Hanief Malik, ACRs, SDM’s, Tehsildars, Naib-Tehsildars, Patwaris and Girdawars of three districts.

During the conference, Deputy Commissioners of all three districts gave detailed presentation on several issues like number of revenue administrative units, staff strength, infrastructure and revenue related activities being carried out in their respective districts. Other issues covered in the presentation  were status of writing of jamabandi/girdawaris, status of mutations, eviction of state/kahcharai/common land, land acquisition & disbursement of compensation, disposal of revenue cases, delivery of services under PSGA, digitalization of land records, status of court cases, public grievances camps held and other related activities.

Regional Director, Survey and Land Records, Mohammed Hanief Malik also presented a detailed resume of working and activities of the office.

While discussing the progress on writing of jamabandi/girdawaris, the Minister said that this is the mandated work of the department and it needs to be done on regular basis so that there should be no backlog. He asked the field functionaries to put in extra efforts to complete this exercise because everything is based on these records and it should be made updated.

Veeri asked the revenue officials to speed up the attestation of mutations and hold special camps to clear the pending mutation cases.

With regard to disposal of court cases, all the Deputy Commissioners briefed the Minister about the present status.

The Minister directed the revenue officers to settle the cases without further unnecessary delay besides asking the field functionaries to conduct regular field visits for doing girdawari/intekal. ‘This exercise would surely bring transparency in the system and will further help in discouraging the tradition of filing litigations’, the Minister added.

Veeri asked the Deputy Commissioners to prepare inventory of all assets belongs to revenue department including buildings, land, and infrastructure as highlighted in the 2017-18 budget proposals. He asked for completing the inventorization of assets at the earliest so that same can be provided to the government.

          While discussing the progress of eviction of encroached state land, the Minister said that state requires land for carrying out developmental works and it is our sole responsibility as the custodian of this land to preserve it.

          “By preserving state land, we are actually doing a favour to our future generations; they will be able to utilize this land only if we take action at appropriate time”, the Minister said.

          The Minister asked the Deputy Commissioners to take monthly review meetings to monitor the progress of all the activities. He also asked Tehsildars to constitute council comprising prominent citizens to know the problems of people and also to visit their respective areas to listens to people’s grievances.

          Addressing the revenue officers/officials, the Minister said that he has conducted surprise inspections to the revenue administrative units following the people’s complaints and a strong mechanism has been put in place to monitor their performance. He asked them to work with dedication to serve the people.

          “There would be now random inspections at revenue administrative units upto tehsil levels besides pubic grievances redress camps will also be conducted to assess the performance of the officers”, the Minister said adding that revenue staff should be provided with specific training at Revenue Training Institute in Jammu.

          The Minister said that we need to move ahead with a mission to bring positive change in public delivery system and to make this department a people friendly institution.

          On the occasion, senior officers, Girdawars, representatives of Patwar Associations and others also raised issues including shortage of manpower, infrastructure for the offices, service issues etc. They also gave their suggestions to further improve and strengthen the working of Revenue Department.

          While responding to the issues raised, the Minister said that government is aware of the difficulties they are facing while performing duties and assured that department will redress the issues on priority. He said that various posts lying vacant have been already referred to JKSSB for which process is underway and service related issues will be looked into.

          Financial Commissioner Revenue Lokesh Jha also spoke on the occasion and asked the revenue officials to carry out routine works in efficient manner and ensure prompt delivery of services to people.

          Commissioner Secretary Revenue Shahid Inaytullah, while addressing the revenue officers, said that there is a need of rejuvenating the original task of revenue department and this kind of conference would surely help us all to move ahead in a right direction. He asked for ensuring timely delivery of services under PSGA so that grievances are not piled up.

          Speaking on the occasion, Divisional Commissioner said that this conference is an important event to give push to the overall working of revenue department. He asked the officials to achieve the targets by clearing bottlenecks if any.