Anguished over pendency of their demands, Patwaris go on 3-day strike across J&K

Patwaries sitting on protest at DC office complex in Jammu. — Excelsior/Rakesh
Patwaries sitting on protest at DC office complex in Jammu. — Excelsior/Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Aug 24: Patwaris across Jammu & Kashmir went on 3-day pen-down strike from today as a mark of protest over failure of the Government to redress their demands.
On the strike call given by All Jammu and Kashmir Patwar Association, patwaries across J&K abstained from their regular work and staged protest at their respective district headquarters. In Jammu, the protest of patwaris was held in the complex of Deputy Commissioner Jammu. All basic members of the Association from district Jammu including Girdwars and Patwaris participated in the protest, which was led by Vinay Sharma, district president of the Association.
The protesting Revenue officials raised slogans in support of their demands which include increase in the grade pay of graduate patwaris, timely departmental promotion of patwaris and girdawars, providing Government accommodation for the Patwar Khanas and basic facilities for running the Patwar offices, ban on direct recruitment of Naib-Tehsildars, creation of GQ circles and transfers of GQs out of the district. They also demanded the Government to solve the issues being faced by them in digitization process of land records.
Speaking on the occasion, Vinay Sharma said in support of their demands, all the Patwaris and Girdwars throughout the J&K are on 3-day strike from today. He said they were forced to go on strike on strike as despite assurance given by the Revenue Secretary in the month of March this year that the action will be taken on their demands within a month’s time, nothing was done despite lapse of around six-month time.
Similar protests of patwaris were held in other districts including summer capital Srinagar, where the Association president Abdul Majid decried the pendency of various demands before the authorities. “We met the J-K Administration and put before them our genuine demands in the month of March”, Majid said, adding that the Administration then assured them that all the demands will be taken care of on a priority basis but we are yet to see anything done on ground.