Odisha to disengage 50,000 retired staffers
THE DECISION TO NO LONGER CONTINUE WITH THE SERVICES OF THE OFFICERS WAS TAKEN LAST MONTH DURING A SECRETARIES’ MEETING OF ALL DEPARTMENTS
BHUBANESWART: The Odisha government has decided to disengage the nearly 50,000 retired persons recruited in government offices over the last four years.
“All retired persons who have been engaged by different departments/heads of departments should be disengaged by appropriate authorities,” an official notification of the General Administration Department said asking the departments to carry out the order immediately.
A government source said a decision to this effect was taken last month during a meeting of secretaries of all departments.
Disengagement of retired persons from government services was a logical step when largescale recruitment was on in several departments, the source added.
The source also said that, over the next 10 months, the governmen was planning to recruit 27,000 doctors, police sub-inspectors, constables, junior clerks, revenue inspectors, assistant executive engineers, junior engineers, veterinary surgeons, junior clerks and fire officers among others.
In 2012, the state government first brought out rules and regulations for tenure-based re-engagement of retired government officials, instead of fresh recruit- ments, citing utilisation of skilled professionals and retired government employees due to pressures of "globalisation and market economy".
The policy defied a 1999 resolution of general administration department, which stated that it was in the public interest to induct fresh talents rather than antiquated hands.
In April this year, country's leading private economic thinktank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), along with Bombay Stock Exchange, said, in the first three months of the 2018, unemployment rate in Odisha zoomed to 6.77 per cent against the 4.7 per cent in the previous quarter. The CMIE’S unemployment tracker added that the unemployment rate in category of ‘graduate or and above’ was over 12 per cent in Odisha.
Meanwhile, the Opposition leaders said, while disengagement of the 50,000 retired government employees was a much-delayed step, it would not solve the acute unemployment problem of Odisha.
BJP national secretary Suresh Pujari said, "The government is not at all serious about employment of lakhs of youths. Had it been so, it would have disengaged these retired people long ago and recruited fresh blood...”