Continued legal battles among engineers to get senior cadre tag and promotion have seemingly hampered progress of project works across the State. Now, diploma and degree engineers are fighting cases in various courts raging from the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) to the Supreme Court to get justice.
This has adversely impacted technical works of departments like Agriculture, Works, Water Resources, Urban Development, Panchayatiraj and Rural Development Department, sources said.
Even the conflict over the legitimacy of the service as per the Orissa Service of Engineers (Validation of Appointment) Act, 2001, 2002, is not over till the date.
Especially, cases pertaining to regularisation of the stipendiary engineers are now pending in the SAT, High Court and the apex court. Despite the Supreme Court’s verdict in the matter, it is still unresolved and hundreds of engineers have been awaiting SAT and High Court verdicts.
The legal battle is also seen in different forums over the seniority and promotion under the Catch-Up policy that was implemented by the State Government under caste based reservation law following the apex court order over the issue.
Under the Odisha Services of Engineers’ Rules, 1941, there was provision for 67 per cent direct appointment and 33 per cent through promotion.
The problem arose only after the State Government made a system to give promotion to five per cent degree engineers of lateral entry category from 67 per cent quota without amending the previous law.
However, the apex court termed the five promotion as “illegal” giving huge relief to the engineers who have got promotion under the Government’s new decision.
The court directed the Government not to remove the engineers from the posts. Following the directive, several engineers have filed cases over the seniority issue.
Due to legal battle between the diploma and degree engineers in the departments, project works are getting disrupted in huge manner, said a senior official.