Officials who serve the most deprived are themselves being neglected today

The Himachal Tehsil Welfare Officer Association has strongly opposed the decision taken by the state government to downgrade the post of Tehsil Welfare Officer and make him Assistant Tehsil Welfare Officer. Regarding which, the President of the Federation Surendra Beamta, General Secretary Nitish and Media Incharge Satish Sharma met the Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment Department Ashish Singhmar and submitted their memorandum and demanded immediate withdrawal of this unjust decision. Apart from this, there is a demand to appoint adequate staff in Tehsil Welfare Offices and give Tehsil Welfare Officer a status equal to that of other Tehsil level department heads.
The union’s president Surendra Beamta strongly condemned this unjust decision of the government and said that the tehsil welfare officer is the head of the office at the tehsil level and works as a probation officer under the Probation Offenders Act. He said that they play an important role in the implementation of many state and central sponsored schemes including social security pension, Swarn Jayanti Aashray Yojana, Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojana, Valmiki Kamgar Awas Yojana, scholarship for disabled students, National Family Benefit Yojana. Apart from this, they implement important laws like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Prevention Act, Disabled Persons Rights Act, Parents Maintenance Act, Protection of Civil Rights Act etc.
Beamta said that at present a tehsil welfare officer is directly playing his role in verification, field inspection and benefit transfer of an average of 5 to 10 thousand beneficiaries per month. At present 71 tehsil welfare officers are directly connected to about 18 lakh beneficiaries under various schemes in the state. Along with this they also perform other administrative tasks. Expressing concern, he said that despite such ‘serious responsibilities’ most tehsil welfare offices have ‘no staff available’, and many times ‘additional workload of more than one tehsil’ is also given.
The President said that if the government does not withdraw this decision then the union will not shy away from knocking the doors of the court for its rights.