ADILABAD: The Village Revenue Officers (VROs) and Village Revenue Assistants (VRAs) in Nirmal district have different duties to perform every day. One VRO and three VRAs form into a team by 5.30 pm and make themselves available at the Nirmal Urban Tahsildar’s office to help the district Collector Musharaf Ali Farooqi, who goes there every day, to practice lawn tennis.
They don the roles of ball pickers and personal attendants, handing him towels and water when he feels exhausted. They would have to be at his call till 9 pm when he decides to call it a day and returns home.
To make the work of the VROs and VRAs official lest there should be criticism, Urban Tahsildar K Shiva Prasada has issued official proceedings (PROC NO: D/777/020), asking them to be around on the premises of the office by 5.30 pm every day.
The Tahsildar has even drawn a schedule with details of which VRO and which VRAs should be on collector’s duty on which day of the week. To lessen the burden on the VROs and VRAs, the Tahsildar has shown some compassion. Each team gets the duty only once in a week but the Collector gets their services throughout the week.
The team that is on duty on one day would have to report the same day next week as another team would take over the following day. As the VRAs come from villages, they find it difficult to return home late in the night as their duty does not end till the Collector decides he’s had enough practice for the day. Even on the days when the Collector does not have a partner to practice, the VRO-led VRA team does not get any relief as the Collector would do wall practice.For a few days, the VROs and VRAs had a surprise of their lifetime. The Collector did not turn up for practice for about 10 days as he was out of the station for his wedding.
Time just flew but the VROs and VRAs are again back on tennis duty for the last three days as the Collector has returned. One VRO, who is acting like the Collector’s factotum, after the abolition of the VRO system in 2020, said that since the government has not yet given the VROs new roles in the government, they are being forced to do menial jobs like working as personal attendants of the officials.
When contacted, Nirmal Urban Tahsildar K Shiva Prasad maintained that there was nothing wrong in issuing proceedings that the VROs and VRAs have to attend to the Collector since he would be on the premises of the Nirmal Urban Tahasilar’s office.
He said there was nothing new in the proceedings which have been there for quite some time anyway. He said he only made some changes recently to the schedule of the work of the VROs and VRAs since it is Ramzan month, he said.