Streamlining the process

16/07/2019

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Notwithstanding repeated directives by the previous as well as present Governor about strict adherence to the recommendations being made by the State Vigilance Commission from time to time, those at the helm of affairs in the Revenue Department are sleeping over the advisory issued by the Commission more than five years back for streamlining the process of providing various services to the people. On the basis of large number of complaints about inconvenience being faced by the people in obtaining different services from the field functionaries of the Revenue Department, the State Vigilance Commission had issued several recommendations to the Revenue Department. The same has been highlighted by JOURNEY LINE from time to time. Attestation of mutations, issuance of Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs), fard-intikhab and demarcation of land etc, the Vigilance Commission had observed, most of these are the basic services which are required to be given under the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Public Services Guarantee Act, 2011 but the time limit mentioned in the Act is not being adhered to which is causing lot of inconvenience to the general public at large and very purpose of the legislation stands defeated.
The Commission has also issued guidelines for strict compliance and copies of the same were also forwarded to the Divisional Commissioners and all the Deputy Commissioners for appropriate action at their end. However, despite lapse of over five years no serious step has been initiated to give practical shape to the guidelines/recommendations of the Vigilance Commission. People are still facing hassles in obtaining Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs) due to demand of lot of documents by the Revenue authorities although the Vigilance Commission had recommended that Commiss-ioner/Secretary to Government Revenue Department should specify clearly the documents required for the purpose. To reduce the interface of the general public directly with the field functionaries of the Revenue Department, the Vigilance Commission has also recommended that single window system should be adopted along with online submission of the application forms and other documents with display of updated status of the applications in all the districts, sub-divisions and tehsil headquarters. Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced by an impartial regulatory body, for the full protection of stakeholders. It is a matter of serious concern that the Revenue Department is sleeping over the recommendations despite the fact that previous Governor N NVohra and present Governor Satya Pal Malik laid thrust a number of times on prompt action on the suggestions of the Vigilance Commission by all the concerned departments so as to ensure transparency and accountability in their functioning.

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