Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner withdraws orders after revenue officers warn of stir

Gurdaspur, March 23

The Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner (DC) has withdrawn a letter issued to revenue officers of this district after the Punjab Revenue Officers Association (PROA) threatened to go on a strike terming the contents of the letter as “derogatory”.

On Tuesday, DC Mohammad Ishfaq had issued certain ‘dos and don’ts’ to administration officials, including those belonging to the Revenue Department. It had also sought to “livestream the work done by revenue officials.” The missive had immediately sparked off a controversy following which the PROA was forced to step ostensibly to “safeguard the interests of their employees.” The immediate trigger for the DC to issue the letter was to toe the line of the new dispensation in Chandigarh, say sources.

Ishfaq, however, remained unfazed. He said he had withdrawn the directions after he got to know that discontent prevailed among revenue officials and that they would go on strike from tomorrow.

The letter, among other things, had urged officials to complete all pending work in the next few days and added that pendency of work in the future should be kept to the bare minimum. It also called for “time bound completion of work pertaining to registries and mutations.”

Sources say what irked the revenue officials, including tehsildars and naib-tehsildars, were the directions that they had to submit a day-to-day report of their working to the District Revenue Officer (DRO). The DRO, in turn, was to give a copy of the report to a clerk who was asked to call up people and to enquire “if any bribe was being taken by revenue officials.”

Gurdev Singh Dham, PROA president, claimed that the letter was “derogatory and was meant to demean and insult revenue officials.”

He said: “The spirit and gist of the letter is that revenue officials are the only source of corruption and that their subordinate clerks were being asked to inquire into their deeds.” “The actual source of corruption is higher authorities and that revenue officials were compelled to fulfil their greed and expectations,” said Dham.

In a letter, PROA also said officials would not perform field duties till they get fuel for their vehicles.

Had issued dos and don’ts

DC Mohammad Ishfaq had issued certain ‘dos and don’ts’ to administration officials, including those belonging to the Revenue Department. It had also sought to “livestream the work done by revenue officials.”