more-in Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) P.H. Kurian, who held a review meeting of senior officers of the Revenue Department at the Collectorate here on Saturday, called for a people-friendly approach by officers while dealing with public grievances. Mr. Kurian, who convened the meeting after his visit to Chembanoda where a farmer committed suicide alleging poor service from the local village office, said there should be proper vigil on the part of the senior revenue officers to ensure transparent and timely service delivery. He made it clear that it was the primary responsibility of tahsildars to have a close monitoring of all the activities that take place in the village offices under their jurisdiction. They would be primarily held answerable if the functioning of a particular village office was not up to the mark, he said. During the meeting, the revenue officers were asked to be vigil while dealing with sensitive cases and approach higher authorities immediately in case of any technical issue in clearing applications on time. Instruction was also given to clear as many applications as possible on the day of submission itself and strictly refrain from the practice of unreasonable postponement. Earlier, interacting with the media at Chembanoda, Mr. Kurian had admitted that there was a slip on the part of the Chembanoda village officials in timely processing the farmer’s application for remitting the land tax. “We have already placed two accused officers under suspension on the basis of the preliminary report. Further investigation is now on into the incident,” he told the reporters at Chembanoda. Minister for Agriculture V.S. Sunil Kumar also visited the house of the deceased farmer on Saturday. He said it was up to the State government to make a final decision on giving government job to one of the dependants in the family.

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