Cuttack, Sept. 5: The civic body is yet to take follow-up action two-and-a-half years after the state government had cancelled 274 illegal app-ointments in the municipal corporation.

On March 16, 2015, the urban development department had declared the illegal appointments void and directed the municipal commissioner to take follow-up action. But no termination order has been issued so far.

The job scam had surfaced in June 2003 when the civic administration detected at least 144 employees drawing salaries since 1998 without any valid appointment.

The same year, Pradip Sahoo, a local journalist, had filed a PIL in Orissa High Court seeking investigation by an independent agency, preferably the CBI, into the civic body's illegal appointment scandal.

The PIL came up before the court yesterday. The state counsel submitted that the CID-crime branch had already probed the matter. Petitioner counsel Radharaman Das Nayak pointed out that no tangible follow up action had been taken after cancellation of the illegal appointments.

The division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi posted the matter to after two weeks for hearing along with the status report on the probe by the CID-crime branch and follow up action taken by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation.

The court directed the state government and the municipal corporation to file within two weeks their respective affidavits.

The illegal appointments in the civic body have been identified in various posts such as sweeper, road gang, drain gang, de-weeding coolies and teachers among others. There was neither any valid selections nor valid appointments.

Sources said the corporation had categorised the illegal appointments and issued show-cause notices of termination to the persons named in the government order. While the mayor had already approved the final orders, the process had not been completed due to restrictions imposed by the court in April 2015.

'The court imposed the interim restriction after some of those whose appointments were cancelled challenged the government order. We will file our action-taken report in pursuance of the high court order,' municipal commissioner Bikash Mohapatra told The Telegraph today.

In June 2008, an investigation by the CID-crime branch had revealed that a Prasanta Kumar Samal of Bauripada gram panchayat in Balasore district had been drawing salary from Cuttack Municipal Corporation as a drain gang staff under a bogus and fraudulent employment for at least last 10 years.

The CID-crime branch had taken up the investigation in pursuance of a high court order following media reports on bogus employment in Cuttack Municipal Corporation. The report was submitted in court. Acting on it, the high court had ordered further investigation. Subsequently, the investigating officials had registered a case and initiated an in-depth probe into the case.

The PIL, on the other hand, had initially languished till the court on April 3, 2014, directed the urban development department secretary to inquire into it and submit a report within eight weeks.

The director, municipal administration, conducted the inquiry on January 22, 2015, and found on the basis of available papers and as reported by the civic administration that irregularities in appointment was committed during 1996-97 and 1998-99 by appointing 117 persons and 157 persons, respectively, in two phases in the corporation.

Subsequently, in an affidavit along with the inquiry report, urban development department secretary Govindarajan Mathivathanan assured the high court on January 29, 2015, to declare the 274 illegal appointments void with approval from the government within 30 days.

In his affidavit, Mathivathanan had assured that government approval would be sought for criminal action against the errant officers responsible for the appointments and recovery of illegal payments and loss to the municipal corporation from errant officers responsible for such appointments.