Coimbatore: About 350 revenue officials in the district boycotted work for the third consecutive day on Friday, pressing their 10-point charter of demands, including enhanced pay for office assistant to district revenue officers and filling of vacant posts, and protested in front of the district collector’s office.
D Shanmugaraj, district secretary, Tamil Nadu Revenue Officials’ Association, said, ‘The strike will continue until the state government holds a talk with us and finds a solution to our demands.”
He said the nature and workload of the revenue department, which deals with issues related to as many as 166 regulations, were completely different from that of other departments that had to deal only with issues related to two to three regulations. “Yet, our pay scale is equal to others. We have been demanding the state government to enhance the pay of everyone in the department based on their nature of work.”
Shanmugaraj said about 30% of the posts were vacant, burdening their workload further. The government, he said, should take immediate steps to fill the vacant posts at the earliest.
“Ideally, foundation and skill training should be provided to the new joiners within a year or two, but the same is offered only after five to six years because of administrative reasons. It is affecting the department work and promotion cycle of officers. As of now, there is only one training centre that too at Bhavanisagar in Erode district. We have been requesting the government to set up centres in each district, so that the newcomers could be trained without any delay,” he said.
Their other demands include withdrawal of contributory pension scheme and immediate implementation of the old pension scheme.