District Administration, Rajouri has switched over to IT enabled online land acquisition for various developmental projects. The online acquisition has been aimed at maintaining transparency in acquisition proceedings, monitoring and timely payment of compensation.The new system of online land acquisition proceedings shall commence from 20 April 2018. All the notifications beginning Section 4 upto final draft shall be issued online with soft copy of documents moving between offices apart from the original files. The revenue authorities will conduct spot visit before Section 4 and take necessary steps for correction in ownership records viz-a-viz inheritance mutation and other vital records.The 16-digit Aadhaar-linked bank account number of land owners will be linked with acquisition proceedings and land compensation will be paid online with information available in public domain. It is pertinent to mention here that more than Rs 12 Cr land compensation has been paid through DBT in last one year. The land hiring arrears and regular payments in case of defence land have already been shifted to DBT last year.The offices of Collectors, Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildars are being equipped by providing adequate machinery and technical manpower.
Pertinent to mention that capacity building of staff and hiring of additional manpower is being done at the level of collectors for a robust land acquisition system for fast track land acquisition and timely payment of land compensation.The Collectorates being strengthened under the project include those in Rajouri-I, Rajouri-II, Rajouri-III (Def), Kalakote, Koteranka, Sunderbani, Nowshera and Thanamandi. The committee of collectors headed by the District Collector had earlier approved the project for shifting to IT-enabled land acquisition.The Patwaris of concerned Halqas where acquisition proceedings are being taken up will also be provided with Tablet computers, mobility allowance, stationery allowance and other assistance required for field inspection and preparation of acquisition papers.District Collector Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary informed that project envisages an effective monitoring at central level, coordination with departments and timely and transparent payment of land compensation. It will also help digitization of records to be available to avoid encroachments. Meanwhile, Revenue department has digitised 4,53,000 revenue pages and out of approved 124,532 pages a total of 1,16,812 have been quality checked.