107,800 land measurement works affected across six revenue divisions of state

PUNE Shortage of manpower and land measurement equipment has impacted as many as 107,800 land measurement works across six revenue divisions of the state, with Pune having the maximum and Aurangabad the minimum pendency, respectively

PUNE Shortage of manpower and land measurement equipment has impacted as many as 107,800 land measurement works across six revenue divisions of the state, with Pune having the maximum and Aurangabad the minimum pendency, respectively. With the land records department currently facing a shortage of 1,500 staffers in various capacities across the state, applications by citizens seeking expeditious disposal of land measurement of their properties are only piling up.

Shortage of manpower and land measurement equipment has impacted as many as 107,800 land measurement works across six revenue divisions of the state. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Maharashtra has 35 districts which are divided into six revenue divisions including Konkan, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur for administrative purposes. As many as 4,500 posts of surveyors have been sanctioned however currently, only 2,500 surveyors are working round-the-clock to help revenue department officials while 1,500 surveyors’ posts are yet to be filled. A total of 500 surveyors have been promoted to the senior grade. While 1,500 additional posts have been sanctioned in the land records department, they have not yet been filled.

In the meantime, drones have been deployed to carry out surveys of various land parcels in the revenue divisions even as the work of land measurement has been neglected. To make matters worse, there is a severe shortage of land measurement equipment such as plan tables and ETS machines that are used for land measurement and demarcation purposes.

The surveyors have been given a target of 25 to 30 land measurements and are expected to carry out between 12 and 15 measurements on a regular basis every month. With increasing pendency, the surveyors are now facing issues related to disciplinary action and stoppage of increment for dereliction of duty. While each surveyor is expected to be given a laptop, only 800 surveyors have been given the said equipment.

Land Records Workers’ Association secretary Sriram Khirekar said, “The situation on ground is completely different as there is a severe shortage of staffers to carry out land measurement tasks. Currently, the employees are being forced to work on Saturdays and Sundays to make up for the shortage of manpower. We demand that all necessary staffing vacancies for the land records department be filled at the earliest.”

State revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat could not be reached for his comment. His secretary said that the minister would respond to the query.