Even as the mass casual leave protest by a section of land revenue officers stalled the functioning of several village offices in Kozhikode district, the Chembanoda village office, where a farmer recently committed suicide following a row over land tax collection, functioned partly on Wednesday.
The office was kept open as the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) wanted to access documents for its continuing inquiry into the incident and to gather evidence against Additional Village Officer Sileesh Thomas, who was arrested on the charges of abetment of suicide.
Though the Village Officer and the Field Assistant did not turn up for duty, the Village Assistant was present at the spot to assist the VACB team who contacted him on phone for the information.
Official sources said three out of the six sanctioned posts at the office were remaining vacant with no proper facilities to handle flooding number of service requests.
District committee leaders of the Kerala Land Revenue Staff Association (KLRSA) said the strike they called for getting justice to the arrested Additional Village Officer was a success and drew the attention of the State government to the suffering of overburdened revenue officials in village offices.
Property dispute
R. Prasanth, district secretary of KLSRA, contended that the police arrested the Chembanoda Additional Village Officer without probing the actual reasons, including the family issues and suspected property disputes, that led to the suicide of the farmer.
“The suicide note had even reference to a close family member of the farmer, but it was ignored to put the whole blame on the revenue officer,” he claimed.
Seeking legal aid for the arrested officer, the district committee of the Congress-supported Kerala NGO Association staged a dharna in front of the Collectorate alleging that the police action against Mr. Thomas would only result in demoralising the whole revenue staff and protecting those who actually abetted the suicide. P. Unnikrishnan, vice president of the association, inaugurated the dharna
Meanwhile, members of the Left Democratic Front-supported Kerala Revenue Department Staff Association (KRDSA) in which Mr. Thomas was a member kept away from the protest. Sources said the protest was organised by various rival organisations to attack the LDF government in Kerala and that KRDSA did not want to endorse the move.
