Bhopal, Oct 29 (Inditop.com) Revenue officials in Madhya Pradesh continued to strike work for the fifth day Thursday to protest the arrest of a land revenue official in an alleged land scam.
Narendra Singh Thakur, spokesperson of the Madhya Pradesh Revenue Officers Association, said the strike was “cent-per-cent” successful as all 1,100 tehsildars and naib tehsildars across the state struck work.
Police arrested naib tehsildar of Katni district Rajesh Kaushik Oct 23 from Anooppur district in connection with a land transfer case.
While the police claim that the land transferred to a private individual is in fact government land and thus Kaushik committed fraud, the revenue officials claim that Kaushik should not be blamed for the lapse as the land was transferred on the basis of records and its registry.
The association’s state vice president Ashok Vyas said: “The tehsildars and revenue officials don’t have powers to inquire into the registry of land and the land in question was a private land in records since 1954.
“Naib tehsildars are covered under the Judges Protection Act and therefore police cannot arrest them without due permission from appropriate authority or the law department,” Vyas maintained.
“We have met Jabalpur range Inspector General of Police M.R. Krishna and apprised him about the police excesses against revenue officials, including Kaushik, in Mandla and Katni,” he added.
Spokesperson Thakur said: “Memorandums were also submitted to the principal secretaries of revenue and home departments and the chief secretary demanding that Katni district’s police superintendent be suspended for arresting Kaushik.”
