Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been speaking about filling of vacant posts during all his monthly review meetings, several Assistant Section Officer (ASO) posts in the State Secretariat continue to remain vacant, affecting State administration.
Of a total 2,800 Junior and Senior Assistant posts in all the departments in the Secretariat, nearly 1,000 have been abolished as part of a cost cutting measure of the Government for all the departments.
However, the Government created ASO posts combining both Junior and Senior Assistant posts of Class-III rank as part of its Administrative Reforms in 2008.
But there are less than 300 ASOs at the Secretariat against the 1,741 sanctioned posts. While 30-40 ASOs are due for promotion, the number of ASOs is likely to go down to about 260, sources said.
Further, about 250 ASOs attend office regularly while the rest remain on leave citing health, personal and other grounds.
Nearly, 20 years ago, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) had sent a list of names of eligible candidates for Junior Assistant posts in the Secretariat. It also advertised for recruitment of ASOs in 2011, but no selection has been done so far.
As per rules, if the Government did not recruit candidates every year, it has to relax the minimum age for the candidates up to that limit from the year the advertisement for the appointments has not taken place.
As a result, the OPSC advertised by raising the age limit for the candidates as per an order of the High Court with regard to selection in the Odisha Civil Services.
Recently, the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) also directed age relaxation for the ASO posts and a final verdict is awaited from the High Court where the SAT order has been challenged.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has directed to confine the reservation limits to a maximum of 50 per cent while the advertisement for the ASO posts has kept the reservation limit to 11.25 per cent from 27 per cent in the socially backward class category.
Till December last year, there were three S/C ASOs, 92 S/T and 65 from economically backward classes category working in the Secretariat. However, the number of women ASOs is very low as compared to men.
Notably, an advertisement was published recently for filling up the vacant posts for the ASO under the ST category.
To keep pace with the workload, the Government is managing the work with the help of Data Entry Operators, contractual staff and retired employees appointed as OSDs.
The pressure is immense on the staff in all the departments due to the launch of several schemes by the Government to expedite official work.