At a time when the government celebrated Revenue Day on Sunday, most taluk and village offices in the state are struggling to cope with the heavy workload as many of these offices are understaffed.
Though the Ninth Pay Commission had recommended the creation of posts of village assistants for reducing the workload at village offices, the government is yet to take a decision on this.
The Revenue Department is facing staff shortage and considerable workload even as the government has sanctioned new posts for the grama panchayats in the state. The employees of the Revenue Department are of the opinion that restructuring of the Department was necessary for effective and transparent service delivery.
The staff pattern which is still being followed was adopted in 1968 and this needed modifications considering the changes that have occurred over the years.
They said that the taluk and village offices should be restructured in a scientific manner on the basis of strength of population and geographical location.
Echoing similar sentiments as that of the Revenue staff, Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash said: ‘’It is a reality that the workload in village and taluk offices is heavy. We are examining how far the workload can be reduced,’’ he said.
As part of reducing the workload, Adoor Prakash said that the e-district programme was introduced.
‘’The digitalised signed certificates will be issued through the Akshaya centres, which could reduce the workload in these offices. Moreover, we are looking at ways for e-payment of taxes. We are started discussions with the banks for e-payment,’’ he said.
Kerala Land Revenue Staff Association state president P S Rajeev said that most of the village offices in the state had only five to six staff whereas the panchayat offices had about 16 staff.
‘’The village and taluk offices have to deal with everything right from issuing certificates to issues related to land,’’ he said.
On an average, a village office issues about 100 certificates a day. Moreover, the eligibility of beneficiaries of the various welfare programmes has to be verified by the village office concerned, he said.
He said that the staff pattern should be altered to reduce workload and promote transparency. The village and taluk offices are currently entrusted with tasks like issuing various certificates such as possession certificate, location certificate, caste certificate, income certificate, solvency certificate and nativity certificate.
Apart from this, the village officer has the responsibility of dealing with disaster management, tax collection, protection of survey marks, collection of land revenue, land acquisition, land conservancy, revenue recovery and protection of river banks.
