Minister warns officers of strict action for rejecting online petitions of revenue records

Patna, Sep 26 (PTI) Bihar Revenue and Land Reforms minister Dilip Jaiswal has warned officials that strict action will be taken against them for rejecting online petitions related to revenue records because of “vested interest”.

He termed the rejection of online petitions due to “vested interest as criminal apathy and injustice” to common people.

The minister held a long meeting with department officials including additional chief secretary (ACS) Dipak Kumar Singh which ended on Wednesday evening.

“In the meeting, the minister said most of the time it was found that files pertaining to revenue records of general public were rejected by Circle Officers… This is a criminal act, which cannot be ignored. This causes injustice to innocent people. The government has initiated the process to identify such COs… and strict action will be taken against them,” a statement issued by the department said.

Analysis by the department has revealed that the highest number of file rejection cases (47.93 per cent) was reported from Suppi Block of Sitamarhi district. Pandarak Block in Patna district is second with 44 per cent rejection, followed by Shamho Akha Kurha sub-division in Begusarai district with 39.9 per cent rejection, the statement said.

“It has also been found that 86 COs in the state have not executed even a single application received in Parimarjan Plus portal (portal for correction of incorrect entries in the digitized Jamabandi register ) since June this year,” it said.

The ACS warned all COs to improve their performance by October.

“The ACS categorically said that 50 per cent of the applications given on Parimarjan Plus portal should be executed by the end of October in any case. Similarly, he has given the target of reducing 6 lakh pending cases of mutation to 2 lakh. Senior officials of the department will examine whether there is a valid reason behind the rejection or it is the arbitrariness of the COs,” it said.

The ACS also said, “The department is now preparing a monthly ranking report of all COs…which will be the basis for initiating departmental action against them. Besides, the department is also preparing performance reports of all COs of the last six months.”