BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government has come in for sharp criticism for lack of proper infrastructure in several key departments, vacancy of 1.8 lakh posts at all levels of the Government has made the task of administration all the more difficult.
Besides vacancy of 1,38,355 posts in different departments, 41,635 posts have been abolished for austerity measures.Though the State Government has recently started to fill up vacancies with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik distributing appointment letters, it is yet to make any visible impact in the functioning of different departments.
There are 5,65,029 sanctioned posts in 41 departments of the State Government of which a majority are permanent employees while others have been appointed on contract. Some of the jobs in the Secretariat and other Government offices have been outsourced while in some places retired employees have been re-engaged.
The highest vacancy of 38,717 posts are in the School and Mass Education Department while Health Department which is in the news recently has 12,167 vacancies. The Home Department which is under the Chief Minister for 16 years now, has a vacancy of 16,386 posts.
Large-scale vacancies in Revenue, Agriculture, Water Resources, Works and Rural Development departments have affected the functioning of the Government at the grassroots level seriously.
While 9,790 posts are vacant in Revenue department, Higher Education, Agriculture, Rural Development, Water Resources and Works departments have vacancies of 8470, 5343, 2164, 5709 and 3886 posts respectively.
Official sources said 10,26,273 persons have registered themselves in different employment exchanges in the State by June 2016. It includes 1,94,290 SC, 1,65,305 ST and 1,28,084 backward classes.
Youths who have registered themselves in employment exchanges include 7,11,640 males and 3,02,633 females.
The unemployed youths include 32,987 who have BEd degrees, 11,902 have teacher's training, 55,902 passed ITIs and 37,247 have diplomas in different subjects.