At one go, the State Government on Tuesday allowed promotion to 192 Assistant Section Officers (ASO) to the Section Officer (SO) rank. While 254 posts of SO were vacant, 130 General, 33 Scheduled Caste and 29 Scheduled Tribe candidates were allowed promotion and 62 ASOs were not given promotion due to lacking of CCRs, said an official.
This promotion was pending for last two years, and after the Odisha High Court cleared the case on December 19, the copy of the judgement was received in the Home Department on December 24.
“Though today the Principal Secretary Home was indisposed, he came to office to issue the promotion letters,” said president of Odisha Secretariat Service Association (OSSA) Chitta Ranjan Hota, adding that it was a New Year gift to the employees. Though there are 1900 posts of ASO in the Secretariat, about 900 are lying vacant due to non-recruitment of ASOs, said an employee leader.