The two-month-long drive called ‘Varasat’, launched by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on December 15 last year, is coming to an end with more than 6.75 lakh matters related to land having been settled during this period. The drive was launched with a promise of ‘Aapki zameen, aapka adhikar, sabko mile apna uttaradhikar’. It was aimed at resolving the long-pending land disputes, especially in rural areas.
According to an official communiqué released on Saturday, out of a total of 7,11,426 complaints received so far, 6,75,222 related to ‘Varasat’ have been disposed of during the special drive, the first of its kind in Uttar Pradesh. The cases were pending for years and all were disposed of by officials of the revenue department under the special campaign within two months. It will also put a check on land mafia who generally target disputed lands in rural areas.
About 10,000 matters are being heard in various revenue courts while remaining ones are being attended to, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Goyal said.
Azamgarh, Prayagraj, Hardoi, Jaunpur and Ghazipur have been among the districts in Uttar Pradesh where most cases have been disposed of, followed by Ambedkarnagar, Ayodhya, Sultanpur Gonda, Ballia, Gorakhpur, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Unnao, Lakhimpur Kheri and Sitapur.
The ‘Varasat’ campaign has been conducted in five stages with as many as 24,000 lekhpals and 2700 revenue inspectors having been deployed to visit the villages and gather information and dispose of the complaints,” according to an official spokesman.
Besides, the government is also giving the facility to people to apply from Customer Service Centres (CHCs). At the end of this two-month drive, the district magistrate at the district and the tehsil level will randomly identify 10 per cent of the revenue villages and check the facts given in the report of the lekhpals through the sub-divisional magistrates, additional district magistrates and other district-level officers.