The secretariat

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 13: The state government has decided to engage retired officers to tackle the mounting workload.

In the first phase, the government would engage the officers on an experimental basis at the secretariat. However, the government said it had no plan to extend the retirement age of its employee from 58 to 60 at this point.

Only retired section officers, desk officers, under secretaries and deputy secretaries will be appointed on a contractual basis. No retired diarist, steno or driver of the secretariat will avail the opportunity for re-appointment on a contractual basis. The move has created resentment among the secretariat’s staff as well employees of other categories.

Finance minister Prafulla Ghadei said: “The state government is spending huge amount on the welfare of employees. At this point, the government cannot think of extending retirement age from 58 to 60. Now, the state has nearly 3.75 lakh employees and 2.5 lakh pension holders. The government is spending Rs 11,000 crore towards salary and Rs 4,500 crore towards pension.”

Ghadei said the government was trying to create employment scope at the government level. “But, all these things have to be scrutinised taking the financial burden into account. We will recruit at least 800 new staff in the secretariat,” he said.

Sources said after nearly 7,000 employees retired from the secretariat in the past 10 years and no recruitment followed, the works had been badly hampered. “There is no employee even to take files from the sections. Because of the shortage of section officers and desk officers, movement of file has been badly affected,” said a section officer of the secretariat.

Another desk officer said: “All the welfare scheme can be implemented if the secretariat and the department heads have the required staff. While in both the branches, there are huge vacancies, the same situation can also be seen at the district level. After the government realised that work cannot progress, it has come out with a notification to absorb a few employees in the secretariat to carry on the job.”

As per the notification, the Orissa state secretariat officers, retired from the rank of section officers, desk officers, under secretaries and deputy secretaries not above the age of 62 years, have good service records and who are physically fit will be eligible to apply. They will be known as officer on special duty.

The contractual engagement will be made for a period of one year and that can be extended further by one year subject to satisfactory performance and shall not be extended beyond the age of 62 years for the contractual employees. Apart from pension, the contractual employees will be paid a maximum amount of Rs 10,000 per month.

President of the Orissa Ministerial Officers Association Satrughana Panigrahi said: “There are nearly 40 per cent vacancies at all levels. Keeping the workload in view, the government should immediately start recruitment and extend the age of retirement from 58 to 60. There should be a uniform retirement policy. While the IAS, IPS, doctors, peons and drivers retire at the age of 60, others are being denied that privilege.”