To protest against the rising incidents of violence against them, nearly 300 Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officers, across the State, observed a pen-down strike on Wednesday wearing black badges.

Virtually throwing a spanner in the day-to-day administrative work, the PCS officers abstain from work while setting 15-day deadline for the State Government to redress their grievances and accept their long-pending demands depending on which, they would decide their future course of action.

The Government officials in all tehsil offices across Punjab suspended the work, while all the sub-divisional magistrates (SDM) did not attend their courts causing harassment to the general public.

At the State capital, Chandigarh, the PCS officers gathered at the Mini Secretariat to air their angst against a spate of attacks targeting their fellow officers in the State.

The PCS officers in all district headquarters observed a pen-down strike and wore black badges to protest against attacks on officers and raised other issues being faced by them.

The PCS Officers’ Association stated that it had taken up the matter with the Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh and the Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar but their grievances were not redressed.

What triggered the protests was an incident that took place a previous week wherein Zira SDM was gheraoed by farmer organisations when he was overseeing the ongoing flood relief operations, and later the farmers tried to push his vehicle in the river.

“Despite repeated incidents, nothing was done. At least nine or 10 major incidents have been reported recently in Dhuri, Nihal Singh Wala, Moga, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Zira, but the government has initiated no action and Government’s this non-serious attitude has further intensified security problems for the officers,” an Association member told The Pioneer.

The officer and Association member said that in many cases, the officers were detained and even attacked. “The officers were targeted while performing flood relief duties and conducting fair elections,” said the officer.

The Association maintained that the protest was against our “long pending genuine demands” coupled with alarming rise in incidents or attacks on the officers of PCS cadre as well as “making them hostage in their offices”.

“We are protesting against the attacks on dignity of our officers,” said the Association president Rajiv Gupta.

Gupta said that it is believed that anti-social elements and a small fringe of organised groups are involved in these attacks “but what is regrettable is that the authorities have not taken adequate action against these people”.

“If we even ignore the minor incidents, about 10 major incidents have occurred in recent past. It’s deeply regretted that even blatant cases where officers have been illegally detained and assaulted, the Association had to approach superior authority to get an FIR registered,” said Gupta.

Besides protesting against the attacks, the PCS officers have all along been demanding payment of arrears that have been pending because of paucity of funds.

Apart from that, they are also demanding air-conditioned cars and two gunmen each at their disposal.

The Association president Gupta pointed that the Government has been given 15-day time to address their grievances and accept their long-pending demands depending on which further course of action will be decided.

Gupta said that young officers are getting only Rs 15,600 in first two years of their service. “The officers have to work with inadequate infrastructure and there is severe staff shortage. In addition, the officers are not being posted on their cadre posts, but still our officers, who are severely stressed, perform their duties to the best of their ability,” he said.

During the pen-down strike by PCS officers all over the state, Ludhiana PCS officers appealed to the State Government to stop attack on officers, which have become quite common in the past few days.

A total of 19 PCS officers gathered to register their protest and filed a written complaint to the government.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Iqbal Singh Sandhu said that officers, especially those working in the field, all over the State were feeling insecure because of the recent incidents in Moga and Zira.