Day 2: Work hit in tehsils as revenue staff on strike

The strike by revenue employees for the second consecutive day caused inconvenience to the general public as they could not get their work done at the registrar’s office here today. A large number of applicants who required one or the other certificate from the office remained a harried lot.

Revenue officials across Punjab had gone on strike on Thursday, disrupting operations in tehsil and sub-tehsil offices after the arrest of tehsildar Sukhcharan Singh Channi, posted at Tapa in Barnala by the Vigilance Bureau on corruption charges. Claiming that Sukhcharan Singh Channi is an honest officer, his outraged colleagues went on strike.

Vikram Singh, a resident, who came to get a certificate from the department, said the revenue officials went on strike several times in the past in defence of their colleagues who had been arrested on corruption charges.

The office of the registrar at the tehsil complex wore a deserted look on Friday. Employees remained absent from their workstations. Apart from sale registration and mortgage deeds, various kinds of property-related works are handled by the registrar. Even the work of registering marriages, issuing domicile certificates and countersigning affidavits is done at the office.