State suspends 11 agitating agri development officers

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 29

The Haryana Government today suspended 11 Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs), proceeded against 48 others under Rule 8 of Services Rules and charge-sheeted yet 100 others for participating in the strike declared illegal by it.

The agitating ADOs, who have been protesting against the assignment to carry out crop cutting experiments (CCE), a procedure to determine crop yield under Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), without providing them basic infrastructure, have, however, refused to relent despite government action.

Confirming the state government’s action, Jagraj Dandi, Joint Director (Statistics) in the Haryana Agriculture Department, said the 11 ADOs suspended by the government would be proceeded against under Rule 7 of the Haryana Civil Services Rules that attracts major punishments.

He said 48 others would be proceeded against under Rule 8 that warrants minor punishments and chargesheets had been issued against yet other 100 ADOs.

“Their strike is totally unjustified. This is not for the first time that the government has asked them to conduct CCEs since this is a routine programme of the Government of India to determine the crop yield. The only difference is that earlier we used to carry out about 11,000 CCEs in the state, but this time the number will be about 45,000 due to the PMFBY,” he said.

The government had yesterday banned the strike by invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

Under the CCE, the agriculture officials have to harvest four plots measuring 5-m long and 5-m wide of each crop in each of the 7,000-odd villages of the state to figure out the average yield of crops, he said.

Sushil Goyat, president of ADOs’ association Krishi Vikas Adhikari Sangthan, however, alleged that the CCEs were not only ill-timed and impossible to carry out for them, but also not in the interest of farmers.

“The government wants them to carry out CCEs when most of the crops have either been harvested or are in the process of it. No wherewithal like android phones needed to run its App, ropes, tapes, weighing machines and other items needed for the procedure have been supplied. Even labour cost has not been provided by the government,” Goyat alleged.

He said their strike would continue even if the government terminated the services of all 600-odd ADOs working in the state.

Stir continues despite imposition of ESMA

Jhajjar: Undeterred by the ban imposed by the state government on strike by invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs), Block Agriculture Officers (BAOs) and Technical Assistants (TAs) with the Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department not only continued their dharna for the third day at the mini-secretariat here but also took out a protest march in the city on Thursday. The march was also attended by farmers from nearby villages, representatives of Sarv Karamchari Sangh and other employees' organisations. As the protesters had a plan to hold a demonstration outside the local residence of Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar, adequate police force was deputed there to avert any untoward incident. TNS