UP revenue dept cracks whip on officers for anomalies

On Friday, three land consolidation officers were suspended, one consolidation officer dismissed from service and FIR was lodged against two others

LUCKNOW After chief minister Yogi Adityanath pulled up revenue department officials for negligence and delay in disposal of cases, the UP revenue department stepped up efforts for quick disposal of cases and cracked the whip on officers for irregularities.

After the CM’s direction, nearly five lakh revenue cases were disposed of within a month, while over 2.6 lakh cases pending for one to five years were also disposed of. (Pic for representation)

On Friday, three land consolidation officers were suspended, one officer dismissed from service and FIR was lodged against two others.

The chief minister had reviewed the report of the disposal of revenue cases in a meeting on September 16. He reprimanded officers for delay in disposal of revenue cases and had warned them to make improvements within a month or face music.

After the CM’s direction, nearly five lakh revenue cases were disposed of within a month, while over 2.6 lakh cases pending for one to five years were also disposed of.

The disposal ratio of pending revenue cases had been recorded at 100% while the disposal ratio of revenue cases in general exceeded 90%, said Sudhir Garg, additional chief secretary (revenue).

The highest number of revenue cases were disposed of in Lucknow district (1,00,307 cases), followed by Ballia (70,761 cases), Prayagraj (65,771 cases), Gorakhpur (62,906 cases), and Gonda (58,264 cases).

Similarly, the top five districts in terms of resolving land measurement-related cases were Ballia, Azamgarh, Etah, Ghazipur and Lucknow. Out of 5,33,089 land measurement cases, 4,36,921 were resolved. In the past month, 29,032 cases were resolved. There is a provision for resolving such cases at the sub-divisional magistrate level within 90 days, said a state government officer.

There were 1,26,29,738 applications in the revenue courts for transfer of names, out of which 1,18,86,265 were processed, with a resolution rate of over 94%. Ballia, Gonda, Shahjahanpur, Lucknow, and Basti districts showed impressive performance in matters related to transfer of names.

HT had reported that 18.4 lakh unresolved cases were pending in revenue courts of the state. As many as 3.1 lakh cases were pending for over one year, 2.6 lakh cases for over three years and 2.5 lakh cases for over five years. The Revenue Board was yet to update the status of 5.9 lakh cases pending in various courts.

Garg said during a review meeting on Friday, it was found that some officers and employees were lax in consolidation works - they were not working according to standards set by the department. Land consolidation officer, Ballia, Anil Kumar and land consolidation officer Sitapur, Santosh Kumar, and land consolidation officer, Mau, Ashfaq Alam Ansari had been suspended, he said.

Assistant consolidation officer, Kamta Prasad was dismissed from service on charge of causing damage to government land. FIR was lodged against consolidation officer, Aligarh, Brijesh Kumar Sharma and consolidation officer (Maharajganj) Aish Muhammad on charge of irregularities during consolidation activities, he said.

‘Computerize land consolidation process’

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had directed revenue department officers to make the consolidation department transparent and accountable to the general public by bringing qualitative improvement in the consolidation process.

ACS (revenue) Sudhir Garg asked officers to computerize land consolidation process. The companies should be selected to complete the computerization work with complete transparency and participation of local people should be ensured.

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