Promotions singe regular tahsildars

The decision of the State government to appoint an additional tahsildar to each taluk has led to resentment among the incumbents.

The posts of shirastedars and managers at the office of the assistant commissioner have been upgraded, thus promoting as many as 228 officials as tahsildars (‘B’ grade). The promotee tahsildars will share the powers and authority of the regular tahsildars.

The newly appointed tahsildars will be given charge of election section, court cases pertaining to land acquisition and will have a joint account with the assistant commissioner for disbursing money towards compensation for land acquisition.

The regular tahsildars will look after law and order and exercise the powers of a taluk magistrate.

The intention of appointing an additional tahsildar is to reduce the workload on the incumbents and the assistant commissioner and to enhance their efficiency, N Gopalaiah, Undersecretary to Revenue Department, has said in his order.

The move has not gone down well with the regular tahsildars. It is their grouse that they had not been taken into confidence and the posts had been upgraded without following cadre and recruitment rules.

They also allege that the draft rules had not been published in newspapers and notified in the official gazette.

‘B’ grade

While the promotee shirastedars had been considered as ‘B’ grade tahsildars, a majority of the incumbents too belong to the same cadre. The criteria for promotion as ‘A’ grade tahsildar are still not clear.

An incumbent tahsildar said the responsibilities entrusted to the promotee tahsildars overlapped with those now being exercised by the deputy tahsildars.

“This would render about 600 deputy tahsildars in the State jobless. We will submit a memorandum to the government to review its decision and proceed in the matter only after obtaining a report from the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission,” the tahsildar said.