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Punitive action to be taken against Himachal revenue officials for delay in works
According to this bill, any revenue officer will have to complete settlement, marking, division and other related tasks within nine months and failure to do so will result in punitive action against the officer concerned
The Assembly passed the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Amendment Bill was passed on Saturday amid opposition protests. All the officials in the revenue department will need to finish tasks in a stipulated period of time, or face action.
According to this bill, any revenue officer will have to complete settlement, marking, division and other related tasks within nine months and failure to do so will result in punitive action against the officer concerned. This includes negative comments in the ACR.
During the discussion on the bill, revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi said that currently, 27,127 cases of marking, 22,786 cases of settlement and 25,705 cases of partition are pending in the state.
He said that after careful consideration of the pending revenue cases, the government has decided to make this amendment to speed up the disposal of these cases.
He said that apart from taking the opinion and suggestions of the common people, the government had formed five committees to consider this amendment.
Negi said that justice was not being served due to long pending cases of people’s revenue matters. The government brought this bill to speed up the process of work for such people and nine months is enough time for the revenue officers to complete their work.
Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that the government held six meetings to amend the Land Revenue Act. He added that this law is being amended after 69 years and the amendment will benefit lakhs of people of the state.
He claimed that after this amendment becomes law, the work culture in the revenue department will improve. He said that the government will observe the results of the amendments for a year and if necessary, further amendments will be made.
Negi pointed out that out of 172 sanctioned posts of tehsildars in the state, 138 are vacant, out of 775 kanungo posts, 603 are vacant and out of 2,588 patwaris posts, 209 are vacant. Under the Public Service Guarantee Act, 19 services have been brought under the ambit of revenue.
