In a bid to implement the rule of law, the District Development Commissioner of Reasi has taken bold decision of ordering of filing FIR against contractors who have failed to show performance in accordance with the terms of the contract of work they had undertaken. These relate to constructional works of the Public Works Department for raising building of Health, Education, Sports departments. These buildings have not been brought to completion owing to the complacency of the contractors who deliberately delay the work in order to claim higher rates owing to price escalation. A problem which the DDC has touched upon is that there has been no response to tenders issued numerous times in regard to constructional work in far flung areas of Reasi. The DDC issued the orders to PWD that no more tenders should be issued as it was waste of time and money. He advised the department to look for other options.
Another issue which the DDC has dealt with while conducting the meeting of the district authorities is that there is no coordination between the Revenue and the PWD departments. No doubt there is the Land Acquisition Act but the reality on the ground is that ownership of most of the land that is subjected to acquisition is disputed. This is for the reason that the revenue department has not made proper and adequate entries in the record and thus authorities are not in a position to establish the true ownership. The DDC has taken the right decision that no construction should be allowed unless the possession of the acquired land is final and payments have been made. The idea is that no dispute should arise after the acquisition has been made. There are so many cases pending in the court of law in which the ownership of the acquired land is disputed. The orders that structure raised before the finalization of acquisition will be dismantled is the right decision. We think that a strong handed decision was needed to overcome the mischief of making fake claims of the land. We are confident that people will welcome the decisions taken by DDC Reasi and Development Commissioners of other districts will also follow suit. We have thousands of land acquisition cases pending in the courts of law for decision. Actually the main difficulty is that owing to wrong entries in revenue records and non-verification, ownership has become disputed in their case. This is the reason why the revenue department must step in and update all revenue record.
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