Chandigarh: A day after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann issued a barely veiled threat to patwaris, while also invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab seems to be headed for a showdown with village-level revenue official who have issued a call for a pen-down strike.
Members of the Revenue Patwar Union and Revenue Kanungo Association declared at a press conference Thursday that they were not “afraid of anyone” and will press on with their call for a pen-down strike. The statewide strike would come into effect Friday in over 3,000 patwar circles which do not have regular patwaris, they said. “The government is free to hire anyone they like including volunteers of Aam Aadmi Party as patwaris in these circles and get work done,” said Revenue Patwar Union president Harvir Singh Dhindsa.
Patwaris and kanungos are revenue officials posted in villages to maintain land records, execute government orders and deal with the public on revenue-related matters.
Speaking at a function in Amritsar Wednesday, CM Mann had said that the state will hire people to replace patwaris if they go ahead with their call for a pen-down strike. “There are enough unemployed people in Punjab who are ready to work on their positions,” he said.
Mann also wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that he had been informed about patwaris and kanungos giving out a call for a pen-down strike, and that the move was intended to show solidarity with a patwari booked in a graft case.
“Please go ahead with your pen-down strike. But let me tell you, once you go on a pen-down strike, it is up to the government whether to hand over the pens back to you or not. There are many in Punjab who are ready to hold your pens. I will not allow the people of Punjab to be harassed like this,” he wrote.
Later in the day, the government issued orders to impose ESMA in the state till 31 October on the ground that patwaris were carrying out rescue and relief operations in flood-hit areas. Dhindsa said Thursday that the Revenue Patwar Union and Revenue Kanungo Association will challenge the imposition of ESMA in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
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‘Will move HC against human rights violation’
At the press conference Thursday, Dhindsa said that regular patwaris are currently posted in 1,533 of the total 4,700 patwar circles in the state.
“Apart from these, we will not do any additional work of circles where there are no patwaris (posted). In case the deputy commissioners, whom we report to, force us to do any additional work or transfer us or take any punitive action against us for refusing to do work, we will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the deputy commissioners by name for violation of our human rights,” he said.
Dhindsa added that getting “one person to do the work of three is a human rights violation”.
He also told the press that the unions have been in talks with the government since 5 August, and that they have put forward three key demands.
The first demand is that the government hire patwaris to fill up the more than 3,000 posts lying vacant, while the second is that the training period of patwaris be reduced from 18 months to an year, and the third being that a patwari be entitled to basic pay and not a stipend of Rs 5,000 — which amounts to Rs 167 per day — during the training period. “This is even less than what an unskilled labourer earns in a day in Punjab,” he remarked.
Dhindsa also referred to a function last July during which Chief Minister Mann handed over appointment letters to over a thousand patwaris who were hired by the previous Congress regime.
“While handing over the appointment letters to the new patwaris, the chief minister agreed to all the three demands. However, the new patwaris who joined their duties after being given the appointment letters continue to get only Rs 5,000 per month during their training period. Also, their training period has remained unchanged and continues to be 18 months. Not a single promise made by the chief minister that day in July has been fulfilled,” he said.
Attacking Mann, Dhindsa said the AAP came to power in Punjab by promising change.
“This is a party that emerged from protests and rallies and yet they have no qualms about imposing ESMA against us,” he said.
On the chief minister’s allegation that the call for a strike was issued in solidarity with a patwari embroiled in corruption charges, Dhindsa said, “This is nothing but a move to defame our cause; with regards to the cases being registered against patwaris on allegations of corruption, we want to clarify that we are open to any form of probe, provided the probing agencies follow the rules put forth for government employees.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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