BHUBANESWAR: The opposition BJP and Congress on Friday lashed out at the state government for the contractual appointment of Manoj Kumar Mishra as principal secretary of the Electronics and Information Technology department and demanded such practices be stopped.
“This is for the first time in the history of Odisha that the secretary-level post in a department has gone to a contractual employee,” senior Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja said.
Referring to the decision taken by the state government to end all contractual appointments, Saluja described the move as historic. He asked what made the government go back on its word. All decisions of the state government are applicable to the C and D group employees but are not implemented in the case of top bureaucrats. The fact that the appointment was approved by the cabinet and not made public shows that the government has some ulterior motive, Saluja added.
BJP general secretary Golak Mohapatra also came down on the government on the matter. There are lakhs of educated unemployed youths in the state and the government has given a contractual appointment to a senior official, he said, adding such decisions are taken to ensure that the officer dances to the tune of the powers-that-be, he added.