Staff shortage: Kangra revenue cases drag on for decades

Posts of patwari vacant

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About 300 posts of patwari are lying vacant in Kangra district

The government had started the process of their recruitment but had been stalled after the High Court ordered an inquiry into the process

People have been waiting for the resolution of land division and demarcation cases

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 16

The shortage of revenue officials is hampering the revenue work in Kangra district. People have been waiting for the resolution of land division and demarcation cases.

RM Sharma, resident of Kanol village in Dhaliara, has been waiting for past 14 years to get his ancestral land divided. While talking to The Tribune, Sharma said he had moved an application for the division of his ancestral land about 14 years ago. However, the tehsildar has still not given orders in the case. The government should set a time limit for revenue officials to decide such cases.

Baldev Sharma, resident of Nagrota Surian, says that he has been waiting for demarcation of his land for the past more than one year. Most of the times the process was delayed due to transfer of revenue officials, he said.

Revenue officials alleged that the acute shortage of revenue officials led to delay in settlement of revenue cases. About 300 posts of patwari were lying vacant in Kangra district. The government had started the process of their recruitment. However, the process had been stalled after the High Court ordered an inquiry into the process.

DC Rakesh Prajapati said efforts were being made to settle the cases of demarcation of lands in time bound manner. Regarding the settlement of land division cases, he said in most cases, they were delayed due to dispute among the co-sharers of land. He, however, said directions would be passed on to revenue officials in this regard.

Sources also said there were disputes in lower Himachal regions as the settlement of land had not yet been completed by the Revenue Department due to which there were anomalies in records.

The land settlement work in the state was started in 1952 from Chamba district. It has been 56 years since then, but the work is yet to be completed. It is still going on in many districts.

A proposal is also mooted to use the new technology procured by the settlement office in Dharamsala that caters to the northern region of the state. The settlement office here has procured total solutions machines to carry out the work.