GULBARGA: The decision to establish offices of the regional commissioner in the revenue divisions of Gulbarga, Bangalore, Mysore and Belgaum to perform the functions of the erstwhile divisional commissioners' offices is yet to be fully implemented.

The regional commissioners' offices will function as the appellate authority on matters pertaining to the Revenue department, which includes land reforms, land acquisition and land grant, and supervision of development works at the district and taluk levels.

The posts of divisional commissioners were abolished following the recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commission.

Appointments have been made to the post of Regional Commissioner in the Belgaum and Bangalore divisional headquarters. But the posts are lying vacant in Gulbarga and Mysore divisional headquarters.

The decision to create the post of regional commissioner was taken in 2005 to deal with the problem of mounting cases of appeals at the State level.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Tuesday that the Cabinet had vested regional commissioners with the responsibility of monitoring development works at the district level. It had also decided to depute employees for the regional commissioners' offices from the excess staff in other departments. But only a few officials had been deputed until now, the sources said. The decision to create the post of regional commissioner was taken on the basis of reports that the revenue administration at the district and taluk levels had become poor after abolition of the post of Divisional Commissioner, and that there was no mechanism to keep check on officials at the district and taluk levels.

The regional commissioner has been delegated the powers to conduct regular checking of accounts and audit at the district, sub-divisional and hobli level offices, and release of budget to these offices.

The Gulbarga district administration had vacated an entire floor in the Mini Vidhana Soudha to house the regional commissioner's office in Gulbarga city. But, work is yet to begin because the commissioner has not been posted.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail