Land conversion; finance department to pay temporary employees in daily wages, 3 months since salary has been paid

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It has been three months since the salary of the temporary employees appointed by the Revenue Department to speed up the processing of land reclassification applications has been paid. The reason for the delay is the Finance Department's proposal to put them on daily wages. The revenue department said that the wages will be paid soon, but no action has been taken so far.

990 posts of LD Clerk/Village Assistant/Data Entry Operator/Surveyor Grade-II posts were appointed through Employment Exchanges for six months in May 2022 to clear the backlog of one and a half lakh offline applications (paper applications) in a time-bound manner. They were also getting the same salary of regular employees in similar posts. Although all offline applications were settled in November, the number of online applications also rose to one and a half lakh. A special plan was prepared and this too was decided to be completed within the stipulated time. The Revenue Department decided to re-appoint those who were appointed earlier, for a period of 179 days and issued an appointment order. They got their salary in December but it was delayed in the following months.

The Finance Department has taken the position that those appointed through Employment Exchange cannot be paid in the same scale as permanent employees for more than six months. Wages can now be paid only as daily wages. With this, there will be a small reduction in the salary that was being received earlier. Besides, the benefits including casual leave will also be lost. Due to the appointment following the criteria including reservation, the employees include differently-abled persons as well.

The revenue minister's office said that steps have been taken to provide the delayed salaries immediately. In addition to the arrears, the salary for the subsequent months will also be paid in due course.