Jaipur: In a significant move aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability in governance, a division bench of the Rajasthan High Court has directed all govt departments and district collectors to issue acknowledgement receipts within 30 days to aggrieved public who make any kind of representation.It further directed the departments to provide a copy of the correspondence made in relation to the representation with other departments and provide the same within seven days. This would ensure that citizens are kept informed about the status and progress of their grievances. The court observed that the lack of communication from govt departments has led to a surge in PILs, as citizens seek judicial recourse to address their concerns.The division bench, comprising Chief Justice K R Shriram and Justice Anand Sharma, gave this order while hearing a PIL filed by Vishram Gurjar and others on July 31, a copy of which was uploaded on the court website Thursday. The court directed that a copy of its order be sent to the chief secretary for compliance.Petitioners Vishram and others are residents of Jaitpura in Baswa teshsil of Dausa where a land is marked as ‘gair mumkin pahad'(uncultivable wasteland) in the state revenue record. “There were attempts to encroach this land and these villagers had given a representation to the public land protection cell (PLPC) but no action was taken on it. So, they approached the high court to get appropriate directions to be given to the local PLPC,” said Mirza Faisal Baig, counsel for the petitioners.“A govt land conservation cell was formed under the chairmanship of the collector in all districts and the process mechanism was also determined. Despite this, many such PILs have been filed, in which it has come to light that the applicant was not informed about the action taken on the representation by the department concerned,” the court said, noting that due to this kind of approach by the govt departments, there has been a flood of PILs in the high court.
