PATNA, March 11 -- The state government's decision to reserve the post of deputy collector land reforms (DCLR) for the Bihar administrative (BAS) cadre to deny the posting of Bihar revenue services (BRS) officers on it has triggered the statewide stir by the circle officers, revenue officers and other staff. The strike entered the second day on Tuesday. A senior officer of the Indian administrative service (IAS) cadre, wishing not to be quoted, said that the BRS officers got enraged as the government refused to post them on the DCLR's posts in gross disregard to the Patna high court's orders. The court had in June last year directed the state government to post the officers of BRS as DCRLs, which were occupied by the officers of BAS for want of eligible officers from the BRS. "The DCLR and equivalent posts in the pay level 11, totalling over 185 in the state, was earlier earmarked for the BRS officers on promotion, in accordance with the recommendations by the D Bandyopadhyay committee. The Bihar government has created a separate cadre for BRS in 2010 on recommendations of the committee. As the promotions of COs and officers of other state cadres were held up since 2017 due to pendency of a case in the Supreme Court, officers of BAS were getting posted as the DCLR," the officer said. The matter became complicated after the COs (which is pay level 7 post) were promoted to the pay level 11 (which is equivalent to the the DCLR and additional district land acquisition officer), but denied posting as DCLR and transferred to other equivalent posts after the court's ban on the promotion was lifted in 2023. "Officers of the BRS under a deliberate design were denied posting as DCLR and the government continued with the practice of posting the BAS officers," alleged Anand Kumar, president of the Bihar Revenue Service Association (BiRSA). Kumar said the government was so adamant for not leaving the post of DCLR for the BRS that it transferred the posts to general administrative department (GAD) from revenue and land reforms department to bypass the Patna high court's orders in reply to a writ petition and a subsequent contempt petition. Replying to a writ petition filed by the revenue officers in 2024, the bench of justice Arvind Singh Chandel had in June 2025 directed the state government to post the eligible officers of BRS as the DCLR and those of the BAS officers currently posted might be shifted to other equivalent posts. The revenue officers had to file a contempt petition in the court in 2025 after the state government refused to comply with the order. Replying to the contempt petition, the bench of Harish Kumar in November last year asked the government to comply with the order (to post BRS officers as DCLRs) within two weeks. Sensing legal trouble in denying the posting of BRS officers as DCLR, the state government on January 29 approved the proposal of GAD to earmark the posts of exclusively BAS officers. Anand Kumar claimed that land related issues continued to pile up as the officers posted as DCLR had little hands-on experiences like the COs in dealing with revenue related matters. A senior officer of the revenue and land reforms department, which is the controlling department of the revenue officers, said that they were helpless to settle the issue of striking officers as it was a policy matter. Principal secretary, revenue and land reforms department, CK Anil, when asked about the matter, said he had no idea about the Patna high court's directions. Another officer of the department said that the GAD has filed a counter affidavit in the court (in response to the contempt notice) stating that the BRS officers were not entitled to be posted as DCLRs, as the post now has been allocated for the BAS officers. The contempt petition is likely to come up for hearing later this month. Meanwhile, deputy CM Vijay Kumar Sinha said that ongoing land survey and settlement operations would be complete by December 2027 at any cost, even if the revenue officers did not return to work. "We will be assessing the situation on March 13 and take appropriate steps to complete the task within the deadline," he added....