Nainital – Kumaon Commissioner Deepak Rawat recently inspected the Nainital Collectorate. During his visit, he reviewed various departments, including the work of the District Magistrate (DM), Additional District Magistrate (ADM) court operations, the mountain and plains record rooms, the mining section, and the CRA section He expressed his dissatisfaction with the shortcomings he found during the inspection and instructed the relevant staff to improve their processes and for officials to conduct regular monitoring. Commissioner Rawat suggested to the DM that one section of the record room should be digitized. He mentioned that if one section is digitized, it could serve as a model for gradually digitizing all sections in the district. While inspecting the office of the Additional District Magistrate (Administration), he discovered several issues with the ADM court cases. He directed the DM to issue show-cause notices to both the ADM and the court clerk. He emphasized that if plaintiffs are not appearing in court despite being given sufficient time, those cases should be closed and resolved. One particular case (Diwan Singh vs. Nasreen), which was decided on May 12 still has not had its order issued. Additionally, many order sheets have not been signed by the presiding officer for quite some time. The Kumaon Commissioner gave the ADM a month to rectify these issues and improve the system. He stated that hearings should be conducted according to the case diary, and signatures should be present on the order sheets. He also instructed the DM to review the ADM court and conduct another inspection in a month. During the inspection of the DM court, the Kumaon Commissioner found that everything was well-organized. All pending cases in the DM court were recorded in the RCMS portal and signatures were found on the order sheets. There are pending cases related to the Goonda Act (sections 69 and 210) and excise cases (section 69). During the inspection of the mining section, it was revealed that despite the DM’s orders, RCs were not being issued. This led to significant frustration, and he called for an explanation from the relevant staff member on the spot. He stressed that when actions are taken and orders are issued, the required funds should be deposited within the stipulated time frame to prevent any loss of revenue for the government. He also instructed that applicants for copies in the record room must provide their phone numbers, dates, and signatures on their applications. Present during this inspection were DM Vandana Singh ADM Fincharam Chauhan Shivcharan Dwivedi SDM Pramod Kumar, and other relevant officials.
