Revenue Officers Key To Citizen-Centric Governance, Says Minister Bawankule
Calls For Rapid Regularization Of Encroachments, Modern Land Records, And 3-Month Lok Adalat Hearings
Mumbai, July 25 – Maharashtra’s Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule has emphasized the crucial role of revenue officers—talathis, tehsildars, and circle officers—in ensuring that governance is fast, transparent, and citizen-focused. He directed officials to intensify public outreach through Lok Adalats, Jan Samvad camps, and special initiatives, ensuring timely redressal of grievances.
At a review meeting held with officials of Ahilyanagar district, the Minister underlined that as part of the state’s 150-day action programme, revenue officers must urgently work to regularize encroachments on government land and ensure distribution of land ownership documents to beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which targets 3 million homes statewide.
He also stressed immediate implementation of the April 30 GR that facilitates sand allocation for rural housing and urged District Planning Committees to allocate funds to modernize land records departments.
Among other directions:
- Convert village access roads to 12 feet width, assign route numbers, and plant trees on both sides.
- Complete all pending quasi-judicial hearings through Lok Adalat-style interventions within the next three months.
- Organize topic-wise camps for digitizing land ownership records, subdivision disputes, farm road demarcations, and rightful beneficiary transfers under the Svamitva scheme.
Importantly, drone-based mineral surveys are to be conducted across the district to identify illegal excavation sites. The Minister ordered joint revenue-police action against those found guilty of unauthorized mining.
He also called for a boost in AgriStack registrations, which link farmers to various government schemes more efficiently.
Ahilyanagar District Collector Pankaj Ashiya and other officials submitted detailed progress reports on revenue-related works.