Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 17: Calling Revenue Department as the backbone of the administration, Minister for Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilit-ation and Reconstruction, Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari today said several innovative measures are underway for revitalizing the department by undertaking digitization of records, constitution of high level committee for Land Use Planning besides committee for evacuee property.
The Minister was replying to the discussion on Demand for Grants of Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruc-tion Department in the Legislative Assembly here today.
For facilitating settlement process and providing effective online platform for resolving grievances, the Minister informed that the department is making all efforts for e-profiling the areas of 22 Districts, 67 Sub-divisions, 217 Territorial Tehsils, 558 Niabats and 1553 Patwar Halqas and 6959 Villages.
Regarding the process for acquisition of land for mega projects of public importance, the Minister said the department has put in place a strong monitoring mechanism for time bound completion of the acquisition proceedings. He said focused attention is being paid in particular to various projects like Railways, National Highway, etc.
He informed that the progress is being monitored at the highest levels on regular intervals with fixed timelines for disposal of each case, adding that this has paved the way for smooth execution of the works on ground.
The Minister said that during the current year entire stretch of the National Highway between Jammu and Udhampur has almost been made free from bottlenecks due to timely intervention of the administrative department. Besides, nearly 99 per cent of the land has been acquired and corridor made available between Srinagar and Qazigund to the executing agencies, he added.
He further said that the most critical issues regarding the portion of National Highway in Banihal area has also been resolved and almost 100 per cent land has been made available to the executing agency.
“Nearly 30,000 Kanals of proprietary/State land has been acquired/ transferred to various Government Departments/agencies for different public purposes during last one year,” Bukhari said.
The Minister informed the house that a policy regarding change of the land use has been notified with a view to streamlining the procedure regarding change of land use, till a comprehensive Housing Policy is formulated.
Further, the Minister informed that necessary instructions have been issued to all concerned departments and Deputy Commissioners to ensure that the indents for acquisition, transfer of land are made by the HOD concerned. He said that concerned have been directed to indicate the minimum requirement of land while placing indents for acquisition/transfer of land so as to ensure optimum utilization of State/proprietary land.
The Minister informed the House that a separate new department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabi-litation and Reconstruction has been created. He said the department comprises of Emergency Relief Organization, Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation, Management of Kashmiri Migrants and will also cater to issues pertaining to Displaced Persons and people affected due to firing on LOC and International Borders.
“Rehabilitation and Re-settlement Policy has been framed for whole of the State with regard to disasters, natural calamities and commissioning of various projects,” he said, adding “An amount of Rs 1200 crore has been sanctioned under PMDP-2015 for providing assistance to beneficiaries of the houses affected by September-2014 floods. So far, an amount of Rs 1024.07 crore has been released on this account.”
Later, the House passed the grants of Revenue, Disaster Management, Relief Rehabili-tation and Reconstruction, Hajj and Auqaf, for the year 2017-18, which were moved by the Minister, amounting to Rs 238450.24 lakhs with voice vote.
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