Officials and staff of Revenue Department in Mancherial district on Thursday boycotted work as a measure of protest alleging harassment by Collector Bharati Hollikeri who is the District Election Officer (DEO).
Some 200 officers, including tahsildars, village revenue officers and village revenue assistants, staged a dharna at R&B guest house after discussing the matter with the DEO.
The protesters alleged that Ms. Hollikeri had issued memos and show-cause notices to them which amounted to harassment and resulted in mental agony. Sources say that the notices were served for lapses mainly related with preparation of electoral rolls.
The DEO told the protesting officials and staff that had they attended their duties properly, there would have been no question of issue of show-cause notices. She told that this being election time and the circumstances being extraordinary there was bound to be some work related pressure.
Ms. Hollikeri said any employee facing problems can directly reach her and apprise her about the problem. The porotesting employees reportedly decided to relax their agitation for a day on Friday to complete the electoral roll work.