Taking government servants to task for their incompetency in quickly attending to public grievances, Revenue Minister Krishna Byregowda has said that innocent farmers will have to bear the brunt of official lethargy.
“Survey for assessing crop loss in drought has been completed in the district. However, you have not clearly mentioned the complete information on the full landholdings of farmers in 33% of cases. What prevented you from giving complete information even after clear directions from the government? Such lethargy will lead to injustice to farmers. Farmers will get better compensation when you furnish complete information,” Mr. Byregowda said at a meeting of officers of his department in Ballari on Tuesday.
He also directed the officers to go back to villages and meet farmers to furnish the complete information.
The Minister pointed out to the disparities in the data of the State government and the Union government regarding the number of small farmers in the State and how it is meting out injustice to a large number of small farmers in getting compensation for crop loss in natural disasters.
“Small farmers constitute 70% of the total farmers in the State. However, as per the data of the Union Government, they constitute only 44%. Due to this, a large number of small farmers are deprived of their legitimate right to compensation from the Union government. The village accountants should link the Aadhaar number of all farmers with their Pahanis so that we can ascertain the accurate number of small farmers in the State and stake claim to their rights before the Union government,” he said.
Taking note of the drought condition in the district and the possibility of a drinking water crisis in the summer, the Minister directed the district administration to make arrangements well in advance to ensure that no settlement in the district faces any problem as far as drinking water is concerned.
“Don’t do everything in the 11th hour. Start acting upon it right now. People may face drinking water and fodder shortage problems in the summer. Float tenders for the supply of fodder and drinking water as early as possible. A task force will be formed in every taluk under the leadership of the respective legislators to oversee such issues. Supplying drinking water through tankers is not the only solution. You may need to take private borewells on lease and supply water to the people on demand. Water should be provided to the people in need within 24 hours of demand and the bills cleared within 15 days,” Mr. Byregowda said.
Bagair hukum land
The Minister got angry when he came to know that some of the applications for regularisation of bagair hakum land [unauthorised cultivation of government land] have remained pending for the last 25 years.
“There are thousands of applications submitted by farmers in Form Nos 50, 53 and 57 seeking regularisation of their bagair hukum land. There are 55,000 applications submitted under Form No 53 alone. Applications under Form No 53 were called for in 1998. The applications have remained pending for the last 25 years. What does it mean? It means that revenue officials know nothing about it. There are over one lakh applications submitted, including those under Form No 57. I want all of them to be disposed of within one year. The progress data should be updated in the official app. Tahsildars will be held responsible, if they fail to fulfill this,” Mr. Byregowda said.
Encroachment clearance
Stating that Ballari district is in the second position after Bengaluru in the matter of government land encroachment, the Minister asked why officials at the district and taluk level did not show any interest in clearing encroachment even after the Chief Minister’s directions.
“Dedicate at least one day in a week for clearing encroachment of government land. Don’t misuse my direction evicting innocent farmers who have been cultivating government land for livelihood,” he said.
