BERHAMPUR: Discontentment is brewing among regular staff of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) following the re-appointment of retired employees to their previous positions.Sources said the BeMC began re-engaging its retired employees since 2021. The re-appointment period was scheduled to continue till May 2022.
During this time the civic body re-engaged its retired staff for a period of one year. These retired employees reportedly received honorarium in addition to their pension, every month. Though several corporators of the municipality council opposed the decision, the BeMC not only turned a deaf ear but rather also reportedly tried to extend the said staff’s re-engagement period.
“In the council meeting held in August last, corporator Sanjit Panigrahy proposed not to re-appoint retired staff and it was accepted by all other corporators. Despite this, a retired employee was re-appointed which shows that this move is for a vested interest,” alleged advocates Pitabasa Panda and Jyoti Prasad Chhotray.
“If the retired staff are efficient enough, they can be accommodated in other posts. Why are they being re-engaged only in their previous positions?” they further questioned.
CPM state secretary Ali Kishore Patnaik also sent a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in January this year in this regard.“There are hundreds of qualified and efficient people working as outsourced staff at BeMC but instead of regularising their jobs, the civic body is re-engaging its retired employees. This is nothing but promotion of corruption,” the letter stated.
On the other hand it has also come to fore that though a retired executive engineer was officially terminated from service following recruitment of a superintendent engineer on March 31, he is still coming to work. Meanwhile, BeMC commissioner J Sonal could not be contacted despite several attempts to reach her.