High level panel says no to revision of SOP, lays thrust on action under CSR

Streamlining functioning of ‘corruption ridden’ Revenue Deptt
Make Div Coms, DCs accountable for implementation
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 15: A high-level committee constituted by the Government to suggest measures to improve functioning of the ‘corruption ridden’ Revenue Department at the field level has come to the conclusion that there was no need to revise the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) prepared three years back and only Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners are required to be made accountable for timely action against the erring officials under J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that keeping in view the poor performance of the field functionaries of the Revenue Department, the Government vide Circular No.01/Rev(NG) of 2015 dated October 30, 2015 notified Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for strict compliance at all the levels.
However, implementation of SOP failed to receive due attention as a result of which people continued to face ‘harassment’ from the field functionaries of the Revenue Department in obtaining different services.
Thereafter, the Government vide Circular No.01-Rev(NG) of 2016 dated May 26, 2016 came out with detailed instructions for time bound delivery of services to the public by the functionaries of the Revenue Department under the J&K Public Services Guarantee Act, 2011.
However, this step too failed to bring perceptible change in the functioning of the Revenue Department at the field level in the absence of any monitoring mechanism. Due to this, on one side people continued to face difficulties in availing timely services and on the other side delinquent officials remained unpunished.
Though during the political Government in the State several representations were made by the people for strict implementation of SOP of 2015 and circular instructions of 2016 yet nobody paid any serious attention towards the same. However, during the Governor’s Rule a glaring instance of nexus between the Revenue officials and property dealers came to the fore.
Taking serious note of the same, the Commissioner Secretary to Government, Revenue Department Shahid Anayatullah vide Government Order No.146-Rev (Vig) of 2018 dated August 8, 2018 constituted a high-level committee headed by Financial Commissioner Revenue for evolving a Standard Operating Procedure to address the systemic issues so as to ensure transparency in the delivery of public services coupled with overall improvement in the functioning of the Revenue administration.
The high-level committee after detailed deliberations has come to the conclusion that there was no need to revise Standard Operating Procedure, which was prepared after detailed exercise in the year 2015, sources privy to the observations of the committee said, adding “the panel is of the opinion that only implementation aspect is required to be given serious attention by all the concerned authorities”.
“The committee is of the opinion that there are sufficient provisions under J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956 to take action against the officials denying timely services to the people or cheating them in blatant violation of SOP and other circular instructions and these provisions are required to be used for punishing the erring officials”, sources further said.
The committee has also come to the conclusion that unless Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners are made accountable for timely action under these Rules against the delinquent officials functioning of the Revenue administration cannot be improved, they said while disclosing that committee will shortly convey all this to the Government through a formal report.
“The committee is of the opinion that there is also no need to bring further changes in the Revenue laws and attention is required to be paid towards their strict compliance by all the functionaries of the Revenue Department”, sources informed.
About the complaint against the then Patwari of Patwar Halqa Chowadhi relating to issuance of ‘fake’ Fard-Intikhab, the committee has sought detailed information from the Divisional Commissioner Jammu as well as Deputy Commissioner Jammu and action shall be recommended after detailed examination of the record, sources said.
“If the Deputy Commissioners start acting timely on the complaints of the people vis-a-vis functioning of field functionaries of the Revenue Department there will be remote chances of any cheating”, sources said, adding “there are numerous instances of Deputy Commissioners shutting eyes on illegal activities of field functionaries of the Revenue Department and illegal mutations of Government land in Nagrota tehsil of Jammu district during the tenure of previous Deputy Commissioner Jammu is one such example”.

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