Kannada organisations will stage a protest in Belagavi on Friday against the State government’s plans to abolish the offices of Regional commissioners across the State.
Members of the action committee of Kannada organisations held meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to finalise their plans. The protest will be held before the Regional Commissioner’s office in Belagavi on Friday. Memorandum copies have been sent to the Chief Minister, Revenue Minister, Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses, and other dignitaries.
On Thursday, leaders of various organisations discussed issues like the importance of the Regional Commissionerate in a multi-level democracy, the powers and duties of Regional Commissioners, and the inconvenience the people would face if these levels of governance were abolished.
Ashok Chandaragi, convener, briefed the members about the powers of the Regional commissioner. The four RCs in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Belagavi, and Kalaburagi have various functions like general supervision over departments at the regional level. They have disciplinary powers and can receive public grievances and hear appeals against lower-level officers. Though they primarily work for the Revenue Department, the RCs have 63 responsibilities under 26 laws relating to various departments. They include maintenance of staff, development, training and human resources of the revenue department, supervision of creation, maintenance and audit of revenue accounts at village, hobli, taluk and district levels, annual and surprise inspections and compulsory annual Jama bandi.
RC s exercise the appeal and revision powers of Divisional Commissioner previously exercised under various Rules and Sub-Rules along with inspection of Development Departments, investigations and review if necessary.
Among their important duties are the revenue appellate courts and conduct of elections in the region. They are the communication channels for the state government and different secretariats to the district and taluk levels. They are chair persons of eco sensitive zone committees and various other committees at the divisions, they are tasked with tracking of various cases at the supreme court and high courts.
They have magisterial and judicial powers in revenue and other departments. They have responsibilities under stamps and registration Act, Supervision Land survey and Land records work, endowment and other departments, inspection of subordinate offices as regards their functioning as per Law, Government instructions and related orders, supervision of natural disasters and drought relief works and their control besides crop harvest experiments and waving of land revenue, supervision of all types of elections in the division, and sanction, Land acquisition, Land improvement, Collection of land tax, Measurement of lands and Supervision of Computerization of Revenue Department.
RC s are responsible for release of grants to office in district , Sub-Divisions and Taluka levels, Annual budget preparation, preparing answers to Legislative Assembly/Council questions and making reports to Sub-Committees of Legislation and Inspection of cases pending in Courts, review of inspection of all developmental works of all Government offices coming under their jurisdiction at least once in a month, to initiate action for non achievement of financial and physical target and discuss the same with concerned Head of departments, secretaries and Principal Secretaries to take suitable action to achieve the targets.
