Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu instructed officials to settle the pending revenue cases of mutation, partition and demarcation of land by January, 2024.

The directions were issued during a high-power committee meeting held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister on Monday to review the pending revenue cases in the state.

He asked all the Deputy Commissioners to dispose of the pending cases on mission mode.

The government was committed towards the service of common man and to solve their problems was our first priority, he said, adding that a large number of revenue cases were pending in the state, which need to be resolved immediately and all the officers should take immediate steps to resolve them.

Every revenue officer, right from Naib Tehsildar to Divisional Commissioner should hear and resolve the pending revenue cases on daily basis and ensure their timely disposal and this will also be reflected in the ACR of all the concerned officers and officials.

He said that the state government held ‘Intekaal Adalats’ on October 30 and October 31, throughout the state and out of 41,907 pending cases, 31,105 were disposed off on priority.

“Similar Adalats (courts) would be organised on December 1 December 2 in the state, which has been now named as ‘Revenue Lok Adalats’, in which all the pending mutation and the partition cases would be settled on priority,” said the Chief Minister.

Directions were issued to all the deputy commissioners to send the complete report of the cases disposed on monthly basis to the state government, containing name, address and phone number of the applicant and other details in tabulated form.

He said that the Deputy Commissioners should also hold meetings with the revenue officers in their respective districts and prepare a strategy for speedy disposal of the pending revenue cases.

The Chief Minister also directed to rationalize the staff as per the requirement and said that all the appointments or dates, for hearing of revenue related matters, should not exceed to more than three days.

To overcome the shortage of staff in the districts, the state government will also allow Deputy Commissioners to hire retired Kanungo’s, he said, adding that the services of summons can also be done through electronic means.

He directed the Chief Secretary to regularly review the revenue cases pending at the level of Divisional Commissioners.

The Revenue Minister will also review the progress of this matter in the entire state before January 20, 2024.