Agra officials protest empty postings in Karnataka by staging a dharna

Under the auspices of the Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) Association Haryana, technical officers, Block Agriculture Officers (BAOs), and ADOs held a dharna outside the Mini-Secretariat on Wednesday to protest against job openings.

They said that the execution of programs in rural regions had been hampered by the fact that more than 80% of ADO positions had remained empty for over ten years.

“More than 80% of ADO positions are unfilled, and nothing is being done to fill them. The association’s state president, Sushil Goyat, said that staff members are overworked and responsible for more than 20 villages as a result of the government’s failure to recruit for these positions. Goyat said, “Farmers cannot obtain the proper information or recommendations on the use of insecticides, pesticides, and fungicides in their fields due to the shortage of ADOs, which results in reduced crop production.”

According to the association’s general secretary, Mukesh Bhankhar, there used to be an ADO headquarters per three or four villages, but they have now been eliminated in accordance with the rationalization committee’s suggestions. He continued by saying that farmers should have access to both online and offline resources so they can take advantage of all the department’s programs.

Goyat emphasized that they were at the mercy of panchayats or people in order to carry out their tasks since they had not been granted any position at the local level. ADOs must have access to office space from the government. For a day, we held a symbolic dharna to draw the government’s attention to the problems. The state president said, “We will take further action if our issues are not addressed.”

In a memorandum he and others sent the district authorities, they said that the promotion of BAOs should be stopped in order to provide additional service guidelines for the promotion of ADOs, which has been delayed since 2008.