As many as about 9,000 cooks and attendants are now working in various hostels and residential educational institutions run by the SC and ST Development Department. The services of only 932 of them are eligible to be regularised.
It was revealed from the information furnished by SC and ST Development, Minorities and Other Backward Classes Welfare Minister Jagannath Saraka in response to a question of BJD MLA Kishore Chandra Nayak on Friday.
The Minister said that the cook and helpers posted on or before April 12, 1993 are eligible to get regular jobs in sanctioned Class IV posts as per a notification issued by the Finance Department on September 4, 2012. Accordingly, 932 cooks and attendants have been appointed with temporary status recently. They would be regularised on sanctioned Class IV posts in their respective districts in a phased manner, the Minister said.
The Minister further informed that the cooks and attendants employed after April 12, 1993 are getting wages fixed for semi-skilled workers by the Labour and Employment Department and the Government has no plan to regularise them.