GUJRAT: The district collector’s office is violating rules in the posting and transfer of the field staff such as patwari, gardawar and naib tehsildar of the revenue department because as only the settlement officer of Gujrat is entitled to do the said job.

The Punjab government had posted Ilyas Gill as settlement officer in Gujrat around three months back with the task of completing the settlement of the land revenue record till June 30, 2014 which was to be completed some five years back.

However, Mr Gill has never been given the right to exercise his legal authority of posting his own subordinate staff due to which the settlement work is suffering.

Though the field staff in Gujrat is working under the settlement officer but the transfer and posting affairs are being looked after by the collector’s office and additional district collector is transferring and posting officials on the collector’s behalf.

It is learnt that Settlement Officer Ilyas Gill, in a letter, has formally asked Gujrat District Coordination Officer Liaqat Ali Chatha, who is also holding collector’s office, to look into the matter and stop interference of the collector’s office in his affairs by the posting and transfer of the field staff which is causing a delay in the already delayed process of settlement.

Official sources said the engagement of a good number of the field staff of the revenue department in the project of developing greenbelts along the old GT Road, passing through the city area by the DCO, had also been causing a delay in the settlement process.

Mr Gill has also brought the matter into the notice of DCO Chatha to get the revenue staff disassociated from the greenbelt project as patwaris, gardawars and naib tehsildars have been given various portions of the GT Road as an assignment where they had been spending more than 12 hours a day for the last two weeks.

The litigants as well as the settlement process were suffering a lot due to the engagement of the revenue staff in the development project that would take another six weeks for making the greenbelts on 14 kilometers area of the old GT Road from Kathala railway underpass to the Rehmania Bridge.

Commenting on the situation, an official of the district government said that prior to the appointment of a separate settlement officer, the Gujrat DCO was holding the additional charge of the settlement officer for the last more than three years that’s why the old practice of transfer/posting by the collector’s office was still going on.

He said that since Settlement Officer Ilyas Gill enjoyed a good working relationship with DCO Liaqat Chatha as both belonged to the same batch of the provincial civil service and due to that background, Mr Gill had been reluctant to raise the issue earlier on because Mr. Chatha had assumed the charge of DCO’s office just a month back.

When asked why Mr Gill did not raise the matter before the previous DCO Asif Bilal Lodhi, the official said that as Mr Gill was scared of being sidelined if he raised the matter.

Mr Ilyas Gill while talking to Dawn admitted that the engagement of the field staff in the greenbelt project was causing problems in the settlement process, however, he said that as far as the matter of the posting and transfer of the field staff was concerned, he would settle the matter by discussing with the DCO and the additional district collector since he enjoyed a good ties with both the officials.