JAMMU: Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, conducted a thorough evaluation of the Revenue Department’s operations today. First, Secretary of the Revenue Department Dr. Piyush Singla briefed the Chief Secretary on the following topics: the state of the department’s online services; the efforts made to demystify revenue records; the development of the online Girdawari module; the various key parameters under the DILRMP; the digitization and georeferencing of Cadastral Maps; AGRISTACK, SVAMITVA, and ULPIN; and the use of land for public projects and purposes, among other things. In order to guarantee prompt service delivery to the general public, the Chief Secretary emphasised throughout the meeting the complete adoption of the Auto Appeal System for all of the Department’s online services.In order to identify the officers with the most pendency beyond the timeframes specified by the Public Service Guarantee Act of 2011, he added, the data about pendency under the act in service delivery should be reviewed. Strict disciplinary action will then be taken against these officers during the vigilance week. According to the Chief Secretary, Patwaris would never call for or require applicants’ needless physical presence in order to provide online services. In the event that anything extraordinary happens, proper notices explaining the reason for the requirement should be sent. Additionally, the Patwaris have been instructed to keep a separate register at their offices where they would document, on a daily basis, the identity of everyone physically visiting them as well as the reason for the visit.He also emphasised the need to georeference all outstanding village cadastral maps and to finish the process of pending pass book distribution right away. The Chief Secretary underlined that online service delivery delays should be resolved in mission mode. According to him, in order to guarantee seamless service delivery to the public, field workers and applicants must be asked for input on services on a regular basis. Dr. Mehta also reviewed a number of actions made to improve departmental operations and provide the public with easy access to vital revenue records. He noted the developments in the online Girdawari module development. In addition to making sure that the Girdawari is completed in the field by recoding the geo-coordinates of the corresponding fields, the module will allow field functionaries to rapidly record seasonal crop details. The Chief Secretary also went over the steps taken to demystify income records in a way that the general public might grasp in simple terms. He asked about the GoI-sponsored initiatives such as ULPIN, SVAMITVA, AGRISTACK, and so forth. He stated that in order to serve the public interest as soon as possible, the execution of these programmes should proceed at a faster pace. The Chief Secretary was informed during this meeting that millions of land records documents have been digitalized and historical records have been successfully scanned as part of the land records modernization programme.
