Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Revenue Services Association (APRSA) has demanded the government to immediately fill the posts that are lying vacant in the revenue department and complete the pending works of the mandal tahsildar offices and other revenue offices in the state.

The APRSA general body meeting was held at the office of the APRSA on Tuesday. APRSA president Bopparaju Venkateswarlu presided over the meeting and the leaders discussed various problems faced by the staff and officials.

Venkateswarlu, addressing the association leaders, said the revenue department is facing hardships due to insufficiently-sanctioned cadre strength.

“Workload has increased since the reorganisation of districts and creation of new tahsildar offices at the mandal level. Besides, eight sections were reduced to three or four sections at the district collectorates resulting in increasing workload,” he said.

Venkateswarlu said that there is no new recruitment in the revenue department for a long time and existing staff are adjusted for the day-today-works.

He said the revenue staff is facing many problems to submit the reports within stipulated time to the government due to shortage of staff. He demanded the government to immediately recruit the staff based on the population and reduce the work burden.

“Training to the revenue staff is very important to resolve the land disputes and other revenue related problems. Neither the government nor the officials are taking care of conducting training classes to the revenue staff. Quality of work is decreasing due to increased workload and changes taking place in the administrative activities,” Venkateswarlu said.

Demanding setting up of revenue academy to train the staff from the grassroot level, he stressed upon the need to give training for at least 15 days to the revenue staff and the officials. He said at least 42 days induction training should be given to the newly appointed junior assistant level staff to make familarise them with revenue laws, department’s basic rules and other works.

He said earlier Rs 7 was allocated to the tahsildar offices from the fee collected from the people to issue caste certificate and the amount was used to purchase stationery materials, printers, papers, etc., After formation of village/ward secretariat offices, no such amount was granted to the tahsildar offices to meet the administrative and stationery expenses. He said the tahsildar office staff has to bear the expenditure for internet connectivity, printers maintenance, purchase of computers, repairs and other expenses.

Venkateswarlu demanded that toilet facility should be provided at the tahsildar offices in the state. Revenue employees are spending huge amount of money to attend the court cases. He said the mandal level revenue officials are facing problems to maintain the vehicles and not payment of rents by the government.

He lamented that the government is not giving grants for the protocol duties and revenue department offices in many mandals are in dilapidated condition. He asked the government to immediately take steps to complete the pending works of tahsildar offices.

APRSA general secretary R Venkata Rajesh and others spoke on the occasion. The association passed resolutions in this regard.