FROM HC gets tips to end graft
The Hyderabad High Court has asked the TS government to look into the suggestions made by senior counsel Sarasani Satyam Reddy, amicus curie, to provide better services to farmers in getting certificates from revenue authorities for farm loans and power connections.
A division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a taken up case with regard to villagers and farmers in Mahbubnagar district not getting any support without paying bribes and that there are fixed rates for every work in revenue and electricity offices.
Earlier, the court had asked Mr Satyam Reddy to assist it in the matter and directed him to make suggestions to evolve some mechanism to curb corruption in revenue and electricity departments.
In his report, the amicus curie stated that despite large-scale traps and raids by ACB against several government servants, corruption was still rampant in the said departments.
He submitted that the village revenue officer was the key person at the village level, but he was not easily accessible to villagers and suggested to ensure presence of the VRO by making it mandatory that the official should compulsorily reside in the village.
He suggested that the tahsildar should visit the village at least once and himself hand over the required documents to farmers of the villages. To assist the farmers, a post of ‘village agricultural officer’ may be created and this official should reside in the village.
He also suggested that MeeSeva counters be extended to every village and all certificates related to births, deaths, social status, income or residency should be given at the panchayat secretariat itself.
Besides this, a time frame for each service from revenue department should be fixed.
The report said that for electricity connection for agricultural purposes, the department should take applications and number them. Procedures such as cost estimates for and its approval by competent authority should be done within two weeks.