The Odisha Administrative Tribunal has asked the District Welfare Officer, Sundargarh, to reply within four weeks on a controversy in the recruitment of woman matron and junior matron for ST/SC girls’ hostels in Sundargarh district. Four girls of the district had challenged the recruitment at the Odisha Administrative Tribunal, Cuttack.

Sources said for 135 SC/ST girls’ hostels in Sundargarh district, notification for vacancies for 146 posts of lady matron and junior matron had been published in March last. It had been mentioned that the last date for submission of application for the two posts was April 15.

The criteria for matron position were that the candidate should be a graduate and for junior matron, the candidate should have passed Plus II.

As per the advertisement, the applicants for these two positions should have been selected on merit basis after verification of their certificate and thereafter the selected

candidates should have been intimated by registered post. But it has been alleged that after verification of educational certificates and recruiting the candidates, the concerned authorities called the selected candidates over their mobile phones without intimating them by post. According to sources, out of 146 posts, 127 have been filled up till date. lobhanetri Naik, Kumuduni Kerketta, Uma Kishan and Nagia Oram, who had applied for the matron and junior matron position, challenged the recruitment process at the tribunal. However, DWO SC Sahoo ruled out that there was no irregularity in filling up the matron and junior matron posts.