Withdraw decision on state cadre: Revenue assn

KULLU, JULY 18

Joint Village Revenue Officer (Patwari) and Kanungo Association state president Satish Choudhary has said that all types of online work and WhatsApp groups (except disaster-related works) would not be carried out by state patwaris and kanungos on their personal phones until the decision of changing their district cadre to state cadre was withdrawn by the government.

During a state-level meeting at Katrain, midway between Kullu and Manali, he said: “The Mahasangh has decided that if the government does not withdraw its decision, they will stage protest at various levels. In the first phase of the protest, the members will not carry out online work through personal devices. Later, the patwaris and kanungos will not undertake additional workload from July 24 and hand over the keys of patwarkhanas and kanungo offices to the government.”

Choudhary said several demands of the association, like technical scale, one kanungo for four patwaris, fixed promotion and economic benefits, had been discussed with the Revenue Minister in November, but nothing had been done so far.

He said the patwaris would only do work related to land in the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme. “There are many difficulties in work related to “Abadi Deh” on the ground and, thus, these should be given to the settlement wing to avoid disputes in future,” he said, adding that the promotion quota of kanungos (for promotion to naib-tehsildar) should be increased from 60 to 80 per cent.