In a bid to implement the rule of law, the District Development Commissioner of Reasi has taken bold decision of ordering of filing FIR against contractors who have failed to show performance in accordance with the terms of the contract of work they had undertaken. These relate to constructional works of the Public Works Department for raising building of Health, Education, Sports departments. These buildings have not been brought to completion owing to the complacency of the contractors who deliberately delay the work in order to claim higher rates owing to price escalation. A problem which the DDC has touched upon is that there has been no response to tenders issued numerous times in regard to constructional work in far flung areas of Reasi. The DDC issued the orders to PWD that no more tenders should be issued as it was waste of time and money. He advised the department to look for other options.
Another issue which the DDC has dealt with while conducting the meeting of the district authorities is that there is no coordination between the Revenue and the PWD departments. No doubt there is the Land Acquisition Act but the reality on the ground is that ownership of most of the land that is subjected to acquisition is disputed. This is for the reason that the revenue department has not made proper and adequate entries in the record and thus authorities are not in a position to establish the true ownership. The DDC has taken the right decision that no construction should be allowed unless the possession of the acquired land is final and payments have been made. The idea is that no dispute should arise after the acquisition has been made. There are so many cases pending in the court of law in which the ownership of the acquired land is disputed. The orders that structure raised before the finalization of acquisition will be dismantled is the right decision. We think that a strong handed decision was needed to overcome the mischief of making fake claims of the land. We are confident that people will welcome the decisions taken by DDC Reasi and Development Commissioners of other districts will also follow suit. We have thousands of land acquisition cases pending in the courts of law for decision. Actually the main difficulty is that owing to wrong entries in revenue records and non-verification, ownership has become disputed in their case. This is the reason why the revenue department must step in and update all revenue record.

A matter of considerable administrative importance that had been hanging fire for almost forty-six years to date has been resolved by the State government by issuing SRO-12. The issue at stake was that the State Forensic Science Laboratory organization was formally created in 1967. But till date the organization was not provided wherewithal in order to give it functional capability. This was essentially in non-recruitment of man power that would handle the work the organization has been required to perform. The SRO in question has cleared the deck for the expansion of the FSL in a befitting manner. It paves the way for promotion of officers, fresh recruitment at gazetted level and expansion of the FSL for speedy disposal of cases, the number of which has multiplied more than 20 times in recent years.
Forensic Science has assumed great importance especially with the proliferation of armed insurgency, militancy and criminal activities of sections of anti-national elements. The science essentially deals with the important matter of investigation of crimes in all its dimensions. We didn’t have sufficient manpower and paraphernalia to handle the cases that were brought to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination and reports. As such more often than not these cases had to be sent to FSLs outside the state and that would take a long time which was inadvisable especially in some crucial cases where quick disposal was considered of importance. The set up of the FSL as of now comprises six positions of Deputy Director, 12 Scientific Officers, and 32 Assistant Scientific Officers. The difficulty in making recruitment of gazetted officers in the organization was that there were no Gazetted Service Recruitment rules with the FSL. This difficulty has been overcome by the issuance of SRO-12. Now the process of filling the sanctioned posts of gazetted as well as the non gazetted cadres will begin. The immediate result of the said SRO will be that decks have been cleared for regularization of 12 Section Officers as Scientific Officers and their further promotion as Deputy Director after three years of their confirmation as Gazetted Officer. The Home Department has already approved creation of six more positions of the Deputy Director in the FSL and a formal recommendation in this regard is likely to be cleared by the Finance Department soon.
Though belated with the decision taken by the government of augmenting the staff and other requirements of the State Forensic Science Laboratory, the dire need for expediting investigation of criminal cases has been alleviated. The investigating authorities now will not have the excuse of inordinate delay in submitting the forensic reports which are of crucial importance in establishing the facts of any criminal case. The major aspect of the FSL expansion move is creation of 99 new posts of officers and officials, who include six positions of Deputy Director, 12 Scientific Officers, 12 Assistant Scientific Officers and 24 Lab Assistants. The State Home Ministry has submitted details of the financial implications for the proposed expansion to the Finance Department over the move. A formal proposal for the expansion and augmentation of the staff was submitted by the FSL Director last year.
Now that the deck has been cleared and the police, the investigating authorities and the courts of law all will feel relief in accelerated speed of obtaining forensic reports of cases under consideration, we would like to say that the Finance Department should also perform its role in speedily providing financial sanction which will be followed by advertising the sanctioned posts and the entire paraphernalia. This will infuse new blood in the veins of FSL and obviously the functioning will take a new course and new energy. We welcome it.