Ban on appointment still in force in Orissa: Finance Minister

Bhubaneswar, Nov 26 (UNI) Finance Minister P C Ghadhei today informed the Orissa Assembly that the government is yet to lift the ban on appointments.

Replying to a question of Mr L B Mohapatra(Cong), the minister said vacant posts were being filled up on prior recommendations of the Finance department to meet the essential administrative requirement.

Mr Ghadhei said that as of March-end last year, 77,163 government posts were lying vacant and there had been no restriction by the department to fill up the posts.

''Meanwhile, the government had decided to appoint 35,808 personnel on regular and contract basis against the posts lying vacant till today,'' he said.

The concerned departments could fill up the posts after taking permission from the finance department, he said. If all the 35,808 posts were filled, it would cost an additional expenditure of Rs 140 crore to the state exchequer.

Replying to a question of Mr Bimal Lochan Das(JMM), the Finance Minister said the government had abolished 44,698 posts during the last seven years beginning from January 2000 to the end of October 2007.

The Minister said that while 730 posts had been abolished in Group A, 1,463 posts had been abolished in the Group B, 25,520 in group C and as many as 16,985 posts were abolished in Group D during the period.

Mr Ghadhei said that during this period, considering the proposal given by the General Administration department and keeping in view the administrative requirements, the Finance department had agreed to appoint 1,11,283 people.

UNI