*Comments awaited from 12 Admn Secys on ToR
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 7: Incredible it may sound but it is a fact that Revenue Department, which is considered as backbone of the administration, has dumped two issues of immense importance—optimal utilization of land resources and improvement in service delivery by constituting committees of officers, which, however, have failed to show required seriousness despite lapse of considerable period of time.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that vide Order No.1253-GAD dated November 18, 2016, the Government on the request of the Revenue Department constituted high-level committee on optimal utilization of land resources through appropriate land use, planning and management.
Headed by Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation, the high-level committee was asked to hold deliberations on 13 key points so that optimal utilization of land resources is ensured. Keeping in view the mandate of the committee, 12 Administrative Secretaries of key departments were made its members.
Within days of its constitution, the then Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Basharat Ahmed Bukhari convened the meeting of this committee and after broad discussion all the 12 Administrative Secretaries, who were members of this committee, were explicitly told to give their comments and suggestions on 13 terms of reference in a time bound manner so that future strategy is worked out.
“Even minutes of this meeting were formally communicated to all the members of the committee. However, none of these 12 Administrative Secretaries has furnished comments till date thereby clearly establishing that they are not serious about contributing towards framing guidelines for optimal utilization of land resources through appropriate land use, planning and management”, sources said, adding even top brass of the Revenue Department, which had initiated the process for establishment of high-level committee, didn’t bother to either convene another meeting or write to 12 Administrative Secretaries for submission of comments.
They further said, “the casual approach of almost all the members of the high-level committee on the decision taken in the maiden meeting clearly establishes that this panel will meet uncertain fate on the analogy of several such committees framed by the Government on vital subjects till date”, adding “lack of coordination right from the very beginning sends a message that terms of reference will remain confined to the official files without any tangible results on ground”.
The terms of reference includes proposing broad guidelines for optimum utilization of land, to protect agricultural lands against degradation, review revenue/land use laws, formulation of housing policies for rural areas for cluster type of constructions and identification of problems and bottlenecks in bringing cultivable waste lands, fallow lands, etc under crop production.
They said, “some of the members of this high level committee are of the opinion that instead of framing such a high-level committee and giving huge task the Revenue Department should have first laid thrust on computerization of land records in a time bound manner and its integration with the judicial data”, adding “others are of the view that the Revenue Department should have engaged a consultant to achieve the objective behind framing of high-level committee”.
“All this clearly reveals that Revenue Department has dumped the vital issue by framing committee of officers”, sources remarked.
Similar is the fate of committee constituted to recommend appropriate measures for streamlining the functioning of Revenue Department to ensure effective public service delivery.
This committee was constituted on April 18, 2016 by the then Minister for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Basharat Bukhari. It was announced at that time that committee comprising officers of Revenue and Law Departments will recommend measures for delegation of authority, transfer policy and human resource management including performance appraisal of officers working in the Revenue Department.
“However, the committee failed to accomplish the assigned task till date”, sources said, adding “in the initial meetings it was found by the members of this panel that the task assigned to them was required to be deliberated at the highest level as such there was no further meeting of this committee”.
They further said, “it is a matter of serious concern that both the vital issues have been dumped by referring the same to the committees”, adding “this is unbecoming on the part of a department which is considered as backbone of the administration”.
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