For the previous yr, the circle of relatives of Laxmi Yadav, hailing from Uttar Pradesh and belonging to the Scheduled Caste, has been navigating the bureaucratic hurdles on the Basti district collectorate. Their purpose? To protected permission to promote their 1.5 bigha land to a person from a special caste.
It’s to be famous that Segment 98(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Earnings Code 2006 does now not permit a landowner belonging to a Scheduled Caste to promote/present/loan/rent any land to an individual now not belonging to a Scheduled Caste, apart from with the former permission of the collector.
Narrating the woes that have been dropped at the circle of relatives on account of the year-long-pending case, Laxmi tells The Higher India, “We had married off our daughter and feature additionally been bearing clinical bills of Rs 20,000 a month. To regulate those bills, we took loans price Rs 5 lakh. To pay off the mortgage quantities, we had to promote the land. So we introduced our case to the collectorate’s understand however no one listened to us.”
This January, her case used to be resolved. “Thank you to the current DM sahab, our case were given finalised in the second one listening to, and we were given the permission to promote our land. There have been other folks in our village whose circumstances have been pending for so long as 5 years; their circumstances have been resolved too,” provides the farmer, who lives in Basti district’s Palha village.
In a exceptional initiative, the District Justice of the Peace Vamsi Andra spearheaded the solution of about 50,000 pending circumstances in just about 4 months. In a dialog with The Higher India, the IAS officer sheds mild on how he accomplished this feat.
Not more justice denied
Hailing from Ongole village of Andhra Pradesh, Vamsi is a pc science engineer through schooling. After his commencement in 2006, he went directly to pursue a occupation as an IAS officer. In 2011, he used to be decided on for Indian administrative products and services and later labored in numerous districts — together with Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Mathura, Prayagraj, Moradabad, Kushinagar, and Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.
Final September, the 38-year-old used to be appointed because the District Collector of the Basti district – the place the area people are in large part hired in agriculture and agro-based small-scale industries.
The IAS officer issues out, “In an agrarian construction, other folks’s main financial actions are tied to farming the place the sphere problems associated with land paymaish (measurements), medh (farm barriers), nali (drainage), kharanja (pavement), and batwara (fund allocation), are very distinguished. Those are petty little disputes the place other folks waste their time unnecessarily.”
“When two other folks battle, there might be a dispute, and in the event you linger on petty issues, the dispute will closing eternally. Such cases additionally advertise animosities among them, every now and then resulting in prison actions. So, justice must be delivered on time as justice behind schedule is justice denied. So, that could be a mantra that we labored on,” he provides.
Cracking the whip
Of the lengthy listing of pending circumstances, Vamsi came upon that the majority have been associated with mutation, correction of data, identify declaration, size and demarcation of the land, renewal of the encroachment upon Executive lands, consolidation, the earnings collections in relation to stamp responsibility, Gangster Act, the validation of the pattas (land deeds), and correction of the maps.
To paintings against a dispute solution mechanism, the IAS officer roped in the entire officials — together with further creditors, sub-collectors, tehsildars, nayab tehsildars, consolidation officials, information access operators, lekhpals, councils, and bar associations — to unravel the long-pending circumstances.
Jointly, the workforce began opening the entire circumstances.
“We took out the abstract of long-standing circumstances and shaped a scientific, day-to-day standing tracking document of each case. We finalised the selection of new filings and the selection of outdated filings between three hundred and sixty five days and 5 years. Other people got a day-to-day goal. If the council used to be now not provide, the presiding officials have been accepted to visit the sphere and put off problems in accordance with the written statements given through the plaintiff in addition to the complainant,” says the IAS officer.
Vamsi additionally known and dropped lawsuits of circumstances the place other folks have been wrongly integrated in heinous crimes. “Except for that, there have been such a lot of individuals who would now not even flip as much as the hearings. For instance, an individual have been given 33 notices, and but, they didn’t flip up. So now we have set a bar publish which, such circumstances might be nullified. In order that’s how this complete task used to be performed,” he stocks.
This used to be adopted through the tracking of day-to-day standing studies through the presiding officials and a evaluation of the delays through the control. “Their complete elementary paintings has been monitored very strictly. There is not any dearth of officials and box government, and they all are requested for his or her day-to-day standing studies. Even they have got to document the verification studies to get the case to a logical conclusion,” he provides.
In combination, the collectorate disposed of 49,823 circumstances in 4 months between October 2023 and January 2024. The IAS officer informs that the district nonetheless has a backlog of nineteen,900 circumstances. “Of those, 5,700 circumstances are about three hundred and sixty five days outdated, 1,150 about 3 years, and 1,650 are above 5 years outdated. An individual must now not need to seek advice from the court docket for so long as 5 years. Our precedence is to unravel those circumstances once conceivable,” he says.
Speaking concerning the have an effect on of the paintings, Vamsi says, “Extra persons are coming to us for the dispute solution. Whilst outdated circumstances are being resolved, now we have filed 17,700 new circumstances within the closing 4 months. It’s some other image of agree with that persons are coming to the court docket with the hope that now their problems might be mentioned in no time. It makes the electorate glad from a broader point of view.”
Vamsi credit his complete workforce for this feat. “It used to be the collective effort. I wish to thank the entire participants from information access operators to further creditors. Recently, the Executive is operating at an overly rapid tempo. This has additionally helped us accomplish that feat. But even so, I don’t need myself to be predicted as anyone superlative. This is a usual regimen affair for any district collector,” says the officer.
(Edited through Pranita Bhat; All photographs: IAS Vamsi Andra)