Shortage of Patwari's delays land settlement process in J&K

Shortage of Patwari's delays land settlement process in J&K Nitesh Sangral JAMMU, Aug 5: Shortage of Patwaris (settlement officials) and delay in computerisation of Revenue Department has slowed down the land settlement process in Jammu division with record of rights given to people in just 841 villages out of 2150 identified by department in past two decades. Sources said that despite listing it as a priority project, slow recruitment process in appointment of field staff is becoming a major impediment in achieving set targets, with thousands of land dispute cases landing in courts. Figures reveal that in Jammu district out of 679 identified settlements; process has been completed in just 381 villages. In Kathua district off the 279 villages taken up under the project, only 130 villages have been completed. In Samba district 383 villages were taken up by the revenue authorities for the settlement, but process has been completed in just 30 villages. Out of 199 villages identified in Reasi district only 30 villages have been covered under the plan. Surprisingly in Poonch district off the 88 villages identified, no case of land settlement has been completed. In Udhampur process has been completed in just 172 villages out of 238 villages identified and marked by the Revenue authorities by the end of January this year. Ramban district, off the 100 villages taken up by department only 82 villages have been completed. Similarly in Rajouri, 184 villages were identified for the settlement process only 16 have been covered so far. “Settlement process is very tiresome and department also did not have sufficient modern technical aids like computers and office spaces to process data, despite the fact that a project was initiated about three years back”, said a official source. However sources further maintained that shortage of staff is not the only problem which the department is facing, but at times Patwaris engaged in the process have been engaged in other works and there is dual control over the staff, which has created confusion in among the people engaged in work. When contacted Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR), Gulvinder Singh expressed his ignorance about the exact details. “I have joined few months back and have to go through the records. Let me check them”, Singh said. Asked about the shortage of manpower, ACR said, “At the moment I cannot comment on it, the recruitment process is going on”.