VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has warned against the massive corruption in the Revenue Department and instructed officials that revenue services should be made easier and available online to the people.
"In this era of computer technology, people should not have to go around government offices for certificates. All services pertaining to the Revenue department should be made easy and made available online,” he said while chairing a review meeting on the revenue department at the state secretariat.
The chief minister said online services should be made available for documents like birth certificates, death certificates, caste certificates and income certificates.
The chief minister felt an immediate need to cleanse the entire Revenue department to save the lands of the people from encroachments.
At the review meet, the CM mainly focussed on the appeals and complaints received from the public and the solutions with regard to the revenue department.
Officials told the CM, “Of the 1,74,720 appeals received from the public, 67,928 belonged to the revenue wing, mainly related to revenue records, land encroachments and assigned lands.”
Naidu directed the officers to take immediate steps to resolve all such issues.
He also made it clear that forcing the complainants to make rounds of the government offices to find solutions to their problems would not be tolerated any longer.
The chief minister felt an urgent need to cleanse the revenue department, so that the people could get the services more easily and without the hassles. “A third-party audit should be conducted on all the exercises like how much time is being taken to resolve a particular problem and whether the complainant is satisfied or not with the solution.”
The officers told Naidu that, of the 16,816 villages in the state, resurvey has been completed in 6,698 villages to an extent of 85 lakh acres.
The chief minister said 2,79,148 complaints have been received in the present resurvey. These complaints should be resolved amicably. Further resurvey should be conducted in other villages in a transparent way without giving room for complaints.
The chief minister also said a large extent of land in the state faced a problem as the previous government threatened to introduce Section 22A. These issues also should be resolved. The activities of the land mafia should be checked by enforcing provisions of the Preventive Detention Act and the Anti-Land Grabbing Act, he said.
The CM pointed out that some persons have lost their most valuable lands due to unwarranted changes effected by officials in the revenue records through corrupt ways. He warned against such practices and said strong action would follow against errant officials. “This must end immediately,” he said.
