SRINAGAR, MARCH 10:(KNS)   Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today delivered an online lecture during a workshop on “New Initiatives in Revenue Administration” here at IMPARD main campus, Srinagar.

The lecture was in the nature of an interactive session and part of semi virtual workshop series on “Disaster Preparedness, Revenue Courts, Digitization and Other Revenue Matters” which was launched in J&K IMPARD on March 8, 2022. The participants in the workshop included Revenue officers of all ranks from Financial Commissioner Revenue down to Patwaris. The purpose of the workshop was to give a chance to participants to interact with other Revenue officers.

Chief Secretary said that since Revenue officers need to implement laws, they need capacity building on a regular basis adding that the basic purpose of current workshop was to equip the participants with proper knowledge of Revenue laws. The objective of the UT government is to make Revenue department as a model for other states to replicate, he added. He said that since land disputes are common in villages so it should be prime concern of Revenue officers to take special care of such issues for speedy redressal. He stressed on the need to set up an efficient Revenue Dispute Redressal System to sort such matters. He also emphasized the need of efficient management of revenue records besides learning of revenue related best practices being implemented in different parts of the country by the concerned officials.

Chief Secretary described the Revenue as most important government entity saying that if Revenue officers decide land disputes in an efficient manner, no law and order issues related to land disputes would emerge.

Chief Secretary asked the Divisional Commissioner to record mobile phone number of all land owners in tri-lingual land record passbooks. He also said that Patwar Khanas should be set up in all Patwar halqas in government buildings so that Revenue officials remain available in both physical and virtual mode. He said that promptness, efficiency and transparency should be the hallmark of all Revenue officials.

Chief Secretary laid stress on deploying latest technology in the updation of revenue records.

Later during the interactive session, Chief Secretary had questions from the participants.

Shaleen Kabra, Financial Commissioner, Revenue, who attended the event online, appreciated the efforts of J&K IMPARD in organizing this important workshop. He suggested that such workshops should be conducted at district level so that awareness regarding revenue matters percolates down to the frontline functionaries of the department.

On the occasion, Saurabh Bhagat, Director General, J&K IMPARD and Panduranga K Pole, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir were also present.(KNS)