Karnataka’s Revenue Department has managed to provide solace to farmers as more than 90 per cent of the pending cases before the revenue courts headed by assistant commissioners in the State have been cleared in the last three years, according to Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.

Announcing this at a video conference with assistant commissioners of all the revenue sub-divisions of the State on Friday to review the progress with respect to clearing the pending cases, the Minister pointed out that 73,624 cases were pending before assistant commissioners’ courts when he took charge of the Revenue Department three years ago; but these numbers had now reduced to 7,490 due to various reforms initiated in the department.

While this accounted for clearance of 90 per cent with respect to long-pending cases, the officials had been directed to clear the other pending cases too expeditiously, the Minister said.

He said when he took charge of the department, farmers had to run from pillar to post due to the huge pendency of revenue cases. As the delay in disposing of these cases affected their lives, he had decided to provide priority for expeditious clearance of such cases, the Minister explained.

Observing that such an achievement would not have been possible without the cooperation from officials, he expressed gratitude them.

At the same time, the Minister expressed displeasure over Bengaluru Rural District Assistant Commissioner Kiran for lethargic and indifferent attitude towards clearing the pending cases.

“While the entire State is doing well, this area which is represented by me in the Assembly is lagging behind in clearance of cases. Inconvenienced by this, people are coming to my home office to enquire about the delay,” he said.

Asking the erring official to abide by norms, he expressed concern that such indifference by a few officials was bringing a bad name to the entire bureaucracy.