Bhubaneswar, The Odisha government on Wednesday rejected mass leave applications of the District Revenue Ministerial Employees, who have been on a cease-work stir since August 11.
While Revenue Minister Suresh Pujari appealed to the agitating employees to call off their mass leave strike and return to work immediately to ensure that poor citizens are not deprived of revenue services, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Revenue Department has directed all collectors to treat the absences as unauthorised, and enforce the “No Work, No Pay” rule.
“Employees will not be allowed to take mass leave. The government will implement a no-work, no-pay rule against those who take leave for the purpose of agitation,” the minister said.
Stating that strikes should be the last resort in a democratic setup, Pujari further warned that their roles could be abolished if they did not return to work, and the Revenue Department may consider modifying its software to reduce dependency on them.
The proposal for restructuring the revenue employees’ cadre has already been sent to the General Administration (GA) Department for a final decision, he added.
Over 10,000 revenue ministerial employees across all 30 districts under the banner of Odisha Rajaswa Amala Sangha have been on mass leave over a charter of 10 demands, claiming that they resorted to protests due to successive governments’ neglect of their legitimate demands. The demands include publishing District Revenue Ministerial Cadre Rules to facilitate long-overdue promotions, incorporating all eligible district offices and staff into the Revenue Ministerial Service Cadre, adopting a Uniform Pay Structure with salary enhancements, and creating a new Assistant Section Officer (ASO) position.
Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management department, D K Singh, said that absence of field-level revenue staff has led to delay and dislocation of essential public services. He directed district collectors to reject leave applications and ensure the regular attendance of employees. Show-cause notices need to be issued to those absent without proper sanction, and their salaries would be withheld for the period of absence, he said, adding that the unauthorised leave period will also be treated as a break in service.
