The Rehabilitation Department will be dissolved as all its works have now come under the purview of the Central Act and the jurisdiction of the office of the Revenue Commissioner.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave his consent for this at a review meeting of the Revenue and Rehabilitation Department here on Saturday.
The Rehabilitation Department has become redundant with the implementation of Central Government’s proper compensation and transparency in land acquisition, rehabilitation and re-settlement Act and a separate office of the Revenue Commissioner has been set up.
It is noteworthy that the Rehabilitation Department was constituted for the rehabilitation of refugees from Pakistan and Tibet.
The department had formulated an ideal Rehabilitation Policy-2002 for rehabilitation of people displaced due to acquisition of private land for development projects. Following this policy, the Central Government also formulated Rehabilitation Policy in 2007 in the context of which, the State Government’s Rehabilitation Policy continued to be revised.
Now, rehabilitation package has also come under the purview of Central Government’s land Acquisition Act-2013. Now, the Collector and Rehabilitation Commissioner will prepare and implement the rehabilitation package. In this process, there is no justification to continue the Rehabilitation Department.
At the meeting it was decided that the rehabilitation section will work under the Revenue Department.
The office of the head of department of Rehabilitation Commissioner under Rehabilitation Department will be merged in the office of the Revenue Commissioner.
The Chief Minister directed to fill up vacancies of all lower rank revenue officers. He said that strict action will be taken on complaints of corruption against the lower ranks. He directed to make delivery of revenue-related services more effective. The Chief Minister also directed to expedite completion of digitalization of revenue and land records.