Survey Dept. staff go without salary for four months

Mysuru: There was a beautiful song “Din Hain Suhana Aaj Paheli Tarik Hain…” sung by the legendary singer Kishore Kumar, which was played on Radio Ceylon on the first of every month at 8 am. This song sings the joy of receiving the salary every month and all that a family could do with it.

However, for the 188 staff and officials including the Surveyors of the Karnataka State Survey Settlement and Land Records in Mysuru District, the picture has been bleak for the past four months, as they have not been paid their monthly salary since June. The sad part is when everybody was enjoying the Dasara celebrations in Mysuru, the personnel in this Department were having a tough time meeting expenses, instead of enjoying the festivities.

No doubt, they cannot be deprived of the salary, but when it is not available when required then it loses its significance. How did this problem crop up for the Surveyors and their ilk?

The Survey Settlement and Land Records Department was earlier merged with the Revenue Department and the Drawing Officers were the Deputy Commissioner, the Assistant Commissioner and the Tahsildar. This Department had been shifted from the Revenue Department in June and the Survey Department officials have been made the Drawing Officers.

As a result, there are many technical issues, which had to be set right and as the processes in the Government Departments are always lengthy and they had to get TAN Number and other approvals, the same has been delayed.

Speaking to Star of Mysore here this morning, K. Ramya, Ex-Officio Deputy Director, Land Records, Survey Department, Mysuru District, said “This is a temporary problem. Including me, none of the people working for this Department throughout the State have received their salaries. The pending salaries will be released this month.”

She said that like in the past, the State Government has shifted the power of drawing the salaries to the Survey Department. As lot of time is required to set right the process, there is a delay in disbursing the salaries.

However, for the staff, this delay is causing lot of problems to run their families, as they have to pay house rents, tuition, school and college fees of their children.

They cannot even go to their superiors and share their concern. If only the Government realises the gravity of the situation and releases the salary, then there will be light in their lives during the festival of lights–Deepavali, feel the employees.

 

This post was published on October 10, 2017 6:46 pm