After Mann govt transfers 235 revenue officials, divests them of registration work, they call off strike

Despite the suspensions, the PROA had Tuesday said they would stick to their announcement of not doing property registration till March 7. The tehsildars and naib-tehsildars had proceeded on mass casual leave on Monday protesting vigilance bureau action against some revenue officials in Ludhiana in a fraudulent land deal case. They had claimed that the vigilance bureau actions were “creating an atmosphere of fear”.

However, hours after the transfer orders, the association’s president, Lachman Singh Randhawa, announced that they have called off the strike and will resume work Thursday morning.

Earlier, Special Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Anurag Verma issued the transfer orders shunting several of them hundreds of kilometeres away. For instance, naib tehsildar Gurpreet Singh, posted in Mohali was transferred to Gurdaspur, some 250 kms away. Similarly, Vivek Nirmohi, posted a Gharuan near Mohali was posted at Ferozepur, about 210 kms away.

Verma said that the services of the transferred officials have been placed at the disposal of DCs because they will not be assigned the work of registering the sale deeds. The government, through an order Tuesday, has already assigned the work of registering the sales deeds to PCS officers, kanugos, and senior assistants posted in revenue offices. Verma said 1,470 sale deeds were registered across 180 sub-registrar offices in the state on Wednesday.

The DCs will assign sales deed registration work to the tehsildars and naib tehsildars later “depending on their conduct”, added Verma.

Official sources said that the government was working to free the sub-registrar offices of the grip of tehsildars and naib tehsildars, as they had become a power unto themselves. “They will now be made powerless. There is already anger against the association within the revenue officials especially after the transfers. Several officials have already started making rounds of seniors’ offices in the secretariat saying they have personal or family reasons due to which they shouldn’t be shifted to far away locations,” an official said.

During the day the government also worked on patwaris, kanugos and ministerial staff associations, who had decided to extend support to the agitating tehsildars and naib tehsildars. They had called a meeting in Moga to decide the further course of action. However, the government reached out to the. Multiple sources, in know of the developments, said that they were advised not to join the protest the chief minister was not in a mood to spare anyone. “They were told that they should not jump into this mess. All these revenue officials have now been posted out. The work of registration of sale deeds too has been taken away from them. The government is also preparing to hand over the work to other government employees including teaching staff. This is being done to remove the title of ‘dens of corruption’ given to sub registrar offices by the common people,” a source said.

Earlier, a circular issued by the Punjab Revenue Officers’ Association alleged that a false narrative was being created about tehsildars, putting their reputation at stake. The officers being probed by the vigilance bureau include Tapa tehsildar Sukhcharan S Channi, who is also the president of the association. Channi was arrested for graft in November. The bureau has also booked Ludhiana West Sub-Registrar Jagsir Singh Saran, while Ranjit Singh of Jagraon and Lakhwinder Singh of Dera Baba Nanak have been suspended from service.

Sources said before Mann issued an ultimatum, Revenue Minister Hardeep Singh Mundian had called a meeting of revenue officials to placate them. However, before the meeting could take place, the CM made a post on X stating that the tehsildars were protesting in favour of their “corrupt colleagues” but “our government has zero tolerance against corruption”.