Revenue staff to boycott SIR works from November 18
CHENNAI: The Federation of Associations of Revenue Employees (FERA) on Sunday decided to boycott all works relating to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls from November 18, owing to the severe workload, inadequate training and insufficient allocation of staff and financial resources.
Revenue staff constitute the majority of the government employees involved in the SIR.
In a statement released on Sunday, FERA said a representation has already been made to the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu. It said SIR is currently under way in TN in a hurried manner without proper planning.
Alleging that the workload has continued to increase and some collectors have been harassing field officers in the name of review meetings, FERA said it has therefore decided to undertake a two-phase agitation.
It said FERA members will stage protests in all taluk and district headquarters, and make representations to collectors on Monday. From Tuesday, every staff will boycott SIR work, including the collection of SIR forms, uploading them online, and review meetings.
It sought ECI and CEO of TN to intervene and create a conducive environment for carrying out SIR exercise. “Tahsildars, VAOs, village assistants, surveyors to inspectors, and office assistants will take part in this protest,” the statement said.
Apart from revenue officials, it said noon-meal workers, anganwadi workers, municipal and corporation staff, teachers and all departmental unions whose members serve as BLOs will join the protest.
The demands include: sufficient time for SIR work, proper training to all officials, appointment of additional staff to carry out the SIR works and deployment of sufficient volunteers and government staff at the BLO levels.
It demanded that collectors should immediately stop holding review meetings late until midnight and having three video conferences every day in the name of reviews.