Naveen Patnaik begins major recruitment drive ahead of ’19
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has started a major recruitment drive before 2019 Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, looking at filling up 27,000 posts in a bid to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s challenge.
According to government officials, over a span of next one year the government plans to fill 27,000 vacancies from the lowest level (peons) with starting salary of ₹15,000 to the highest level (Odisha Administrative Service) officers with starting salary of ₹50,000.
The officials said that the government would also recruit doctors, police sub-inspectors, constables, junior clerks, revenue inspectors, assistant executive engineers, and junior engineers, among others.
The Odisha government in the last five years have hired over 63,800 persons in 40 odd departments.
“The process of recruitment of these officials is in various stages and we hope to finish the process in next one year,” said Ashok K Meena, principal secretary of general administration department, which looks after the recruitment of government officials.
Odisha has over 4.5 lakh permanent government employees and another 2.5 lakh contractual employees.
In 1995, the Odisha government put a freeze on recruitments and reduced 75% of its base-level posts in a bid to manage state finances. In 2010, when the finances of the state started looking up due to several fiscal disciplining measures under the Fiscal Responsibility and Management Act, the government started recruiting people in police, health and school and mass education departments. It was only after 2013, the government went for routine recruitment drive and started holding Odisha Administrative Service examinations on an annual basis, a departure from the past.
Analysts say the political impact of handing out large number of jobs a year before the polls could help Naveen Patnaik in polls. “While the BJP is aggressively trying to woo the youth of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik’s bonanza of government jobs would surely be lapped up by youth. It would help Patnaik counter opposition claims of not doing anything for the state’s youths,” said retired political science professor Surya Mishra.
But several others like former state finance minister Panchanan Kanungo disagree. “As per the state government’s own admission in this year’s Budget, they still have 1.57 lakh vacancies in the government. Recruitment of 27,000 more would not help. There is acute unemployment and underemployment in Odisha...,” said Kanungo.
“Why did the government wake up to the need of recruitments in government just now? Odisha youth need more recruitments in private sector which the state government has failed to provide,” said former Odisha Congress chief Prasad Harichandan.
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