Rural development department staff go on mass casual leave in Erode

Urging the State government to fulfill their eight-charter of demands, including filling of vacancies, members of Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department Officials’ Association went on a mass casual leave across the district here on Thursday.

Urging the State government to fulfill their eight-charter of demands, including filling of vacancies, members of Tamil Nadu Rural Development Department Officials’ Association went on a mass casual leave across the district here on Thursday.

The rural development offices at the Collectorate and 14 union offices wore a deserted look as over 720 officers, including block development officers and panchayat secretaries, did not turn up for duty.

Members of the association said officers were not given sufficient time for implementing various schemes while intervention of political party functionaries also disrupted their work. They said they worked under tremendous stress as vacancies were yet to be fulfilled for a long time. Hence, they were forced to abstain from work for a day across the State, they added.

Their demands were to absorb computer operators under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as permanent staff and disburse benefits, create the post of block project officer for MGNREGS at all blocks, cancel the Government Order No. 17 dated February 22, 2022, that cancel appointment of staff for social auditing, cancel exam to recruit data entry operators under Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan scheme, and not to delay promotions of officers.