The Madhya Pradesh High Court, terming the ongoing strike of patwaris as illegal, told them to immediately return to work. The High Court order came after hearing a Public Interest litigation (PIl) on Thursday, 3.
The PIl filed by a farmer of village Nargi in Gadarwara tehsil of Narsinghpur district Rajesh Patel said that the indefinite strike of the Patwaris on call of MP Patwari Sangh is creating hurdles in distribution of relief amount to the farmers due to that farmers are committing suicides. The Patwaris strike is affecting over 59.22 lakh farmers in the state among whom over 9000 Patwaris of the state have to distribute compensation and relief amount to the tune of over Rs 4000 crore. The main work of the Patwaris is to land measurement, mutation and distribution of relief amount.
Going through the petition the dual bench of the MP High Court comprising of Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice KK Trivedi in its order said that on first sight the strike of the Patwaris appears to be illegal and they should immediately return to their work. HC also ordered the defendants to submit their replky over the issue by Dec 16, 2015. The HC further said in its order that if the Patwaris do not return to work than the chief secretary should take strict action against them. The petitioner was represented in the court by Advocates PR Bhave and Brajendra Singh Kushwaha while the state government side was represented by Advocate General Ravishchandra Agarwal and Additional Advocate General Purushendra Korav.