Shimla, Nov 20 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday directed officials to settle the pending revenue cases of mutation, partition and demarcation of land by January 20.

The High Power Committee under the chairmanship of Sukhu reviewed the pending revenue cases in the state and asked all the deputy commissioners to dispose of the pending cases on mission mode, a statement issued here said.

Every revenue officer, right from naib tehsildar to divisional commissioner should hear and resolve the pending revenue cases on a daily basis and ensure their timely disposal and this will also be reflected in the ACR of all the concerned officers and officials, Sukhu said.

As many as 31,105 cases out of a total of 41,907 pending cases were disposed of in the ‘mutation adalats’ held on October 30 and 31 across the state, he said, adding that similar courts, which have now been named as Revenue Lok Adalats, would be organised on December 1 and 2 to settle such pending cases.

Directions were issued to all the deputy commissioners to hold meetings with their district’s revenue officers and also to send the complete report of the cases disposed of on a monthly basis to the state government, containing the name, address and phone number of the applicant and other details in tabulated form.

He also directed to rationalise the staff as per the requirement and said that all the appointments or dates, for hearing of revenue-related matters, should not exceed 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/patwari, Sukhu said.

There were 28,472 pending cases of partition in the State which included 1407 pending partition cases in Bilaspur, 680 in Chamba, 2413 in Hamirpur, 12,014, Kangra, 156 in Kinnaur, 1057 in Kullu, 48 in Lahaul-Spiti, 3208 in Mandi, 1288 in Shimla, 1072 in Sirmaur, 1156 in Solan and 3973 in Una till October 31, 2023, the statement said. PTI BPL NB NB