*Div Coms, DCs to fix quarterly, monthly targets
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 24: Perturbed over continuous attempts to encroach upon State, Kahcharai and common lands by the mafia right under the nose of field functionaries of the Revenue Department, the State Government is all set to come up with stringent measures to check violations of land laws across Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the new directives, the Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners would fix quarterly and monthly targets for the revenue officials and the failure to meet the same would result into removal from the services.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Government has viewed very seriously the failure of the field functionaries of the Revenue Department to contain encroachments on the State, Kahcharai and common lands and decided to make officers and officials of the department accountable by way of taking harsh measures. “These measures have been finalized and within next few days a formal order would be issued by the Revenue Department on the instructions of Minister Incharge, Basharat Bukhari”, sources informed.
The Divisional Commissioners, as per newly proposed guidelines, would fix quarterly targets for each Deputy Commissioner regarding removal of encroachments from State, Kahcharai and other common lands. Similarly, Deputy Commissioners will fix monthly targets for the revenue officers.
The Naib Tehsildars, Girdawars and Patwaris will, after every month, submit self-certifying report that no encroachment of Kahcharai, Common and State land besides any unauthorized conversion of agricultural land has taken place within their jurisdiction, sources said, adding “in case it is proved wrong or false, the official concerned will be liable for severe punishment including removal from the service”.
“The removal of encroachment, failure to stop violation of land laws and unauthorized change of land use and extraction of clay from agricultural land would be reflected in the Annual Performance Reports of the officials at all levels”, sources said.
Not only on encroachment front, the performance of the field functionaries of the Revenue Department will also be measured on delivery of various other services, sources said while disclosing that under the new measures the Deputy Commissioners will be held responsible for initiating single window system in each tehsil for providing services to the people, which include issuance of Permanent Resident Certificates and income certificates.
They will also ensure that the provisions of the Right to Information Act and Public Services Guarantee Act are implemented in letter and spirit. They will further ensure that the Public Information Officers and Additional Public Information Officers deliver the services to public in a transparent manner.
Moreover, the Deputy Commissioners will be responsible for notifying the public hearing days at the district and tehsil levels and also holding public meetings every month in various areas of their respective districts.
The Additional Deputy Commissioners, Assistant Commissioners of Revenue, Sub-Divisional Magistrates and Tehsildars will also be personally responsible to ensure that hassle free services are provided to the public within their domain. “Lack of effective supervision will invite penalty on the supervisory officers in the same manner as if they have personally failed to provide the services”, sources informed.
The other proposed measures include tracking of presence of the Patwaris at their designated places on the notified dates by the Naib Tehsildars and Tehsildars and maintaining separate registers for delivery of public services and submission of regular progress reports to the Deputy Commissioners.
On failure to provide services within the specified timeframe, financial penalty as well as disciplinary proceedings under the Civil Service Regulations will also be initiated against the delinquent officials.
“These measures are being taken as it has been observed that revenue officials are not providing timely services on one or the other pretext and in the absence of monitoring mechanism they even go scot free”, sources said.
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