In climbdown, Punjab revenue officials say will work in own circles, won’t handle any additional charge

According to the Union, there are 4,716 revenue circles in Punjab and only 1,523 patwaris. They take care of the work of the circle where they are posted and also in 3,193 additional circles.

“The revenue officials will not perform the work of the 3,193 circles from Friday. We will all work in our circles. But we will not do any additional work,” Revenue Patwar Union president Harvir Singh Dhindsa said.

He said that if any officer tried to burden them with additional work, they would move the high court for violating their “human rights”.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had through the chief secretary directed the financial commissioner (revenue) to invoke the provisions of the EPESMA so that criminal proceedings can be launched against employees in case they go on strike.

Dhindsa said that an attempt has been made to threaten them by invoking EPESMA and demanded that the state government hire officers for the 3,193 revenue circles. He said the posting circles were created when Punjab had 12 districts. “Now Punjab has 23 districts, but the number of posts has remained the same,” he said.

“The government has also imposed ‘no work, no pay’ on us. But now we demand ‘extra pay for extra work’,” Dhindsa said.

The revenue officials are also protesting against the government for increasing the training period of 1,090 patwaris from one year to one and a half years, and for paying those on contract Rs 167 per day (Rs 5,000 a month).
Dhindsa told reporters that a meeting between protesting revenue officials and a principal secretary-rank officer was scheduled for Thursday but it was cancelled.

Stating that they were not doing anything unconstitutional, Dhindsa said that they will move the high court against the ESMA notification and dubbed the state government’s move a violation of human rights and the Constitution.

Patwaris and kanungos mainly maintain records regarding land ownerships.

Terming the case against the patwari and kanungo “false”, members of the Union had demanded that it be withdrawn. They also claimed that before registration of the case, the approvals of the deputy commissioner and financial commissioner were not taken. Dhindsa said the FIR registered against the patwari and kanungo in Patiala was illegal as a sanction was not sought under Section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Slamming the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, Dhindsa said if the party does not follow the Constitution and tries to suppress the voice of employees, then it should remove pictures of Dr BR Ambedkar from government offices.

Referring to the chief minister’s statement that patwaris and kanungos were getting a monthly salary of Rs 1.5 lakh a month, Dhindsa dared Mann to prove that if any ‘patwari’ or ‘kanungo’ was getting that much salary and said it does not behove him to make such “false” statements.

It was the AAP in 2021 that opposed the appointment of retired employees but after it came to power, it also hired retired revenue officials, he said.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal strongly condemned the AAP government for invoking the EPESMA. “This is condemnable,” he said and added that the government should hold talks with the officers.

Separately, the DC Office Employees’ Association will observe a pen-down strike from September 11 to September 13 to press for their various demands.