Odisha Minister urges striking District Revenue employees to return to work

Bhubaneswar, Aug 13 (IANS) Odisha Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari on Wednesday appealed to the District Revenue Ministerial Employees to call off their mass leave strike and return to their work immediately.

The minister noted that the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Revenue Department has directed all Collectors to reject leave applications, treat absences as unauthorised, and enforce the "No Work, No Pay" rule.

Minister Pujari warned that if employees do not return to duty, their roles could be abolished, and the Revenue Department may consider modifying its software to reduce dependency on them.

The government appealed to employees to resume work immediately to ensure that poor citizens are not deprived of revenue services.

Revenue Minister Pujari said that in a democratic setup, strikes should be the last resort and dialogue is always the best way forward.

The proposal for restructuring the revenue employees' cadre has already been sent to the General Administration (GA) Department for a final decision. He cautioned that mass leave is not a healthy sign, as it deprives the people of Odisha of essential revenue services.

Over 10,000 revenue ministerial employees across all 30 districts have been on mass leave since Monday over a charter of 10 demands.

The employees alleged that they had earlier staged a protest wearing black badges in July.

The state government had then assured them that their demands would be fulfilled within a month. Their demands include restructuring the revenue employees' cadre, an increase in the initial pay, health insurance of Rs 20 lakh, 100 per cent promotion in Odisha Revenue Service for the Revenue Ministerial Employees, among others.

Earlier, the Revenue Department ACS Deoranajan Kumar Singh directed the District Collectors to issue show-cause notices against those absent without authorisation.

The salaries of the employees will be withheld for the period of unauthorised absence. The unauthorised leave period will also be treated as a break in service and recorded in the service book.

Singh also stated that the non-availability of field-level revenue personnel has disrupted key public services in the state and caused significant inconvenience to the public.

--IANS

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