BHUBANESWAR: The Cabinet on Friday approved the proposal for amendments to the Odisha Civil Service Rules for appointment of an eligible family member of a Government servant, who dies in service, in Group D post on compassionate grounds.
Announcing the decision, Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy said earlier appointments were made on compassionate grounds in Group C and D posts. Under the rehabilitation assistance scheme (RAS), 10 per cent of the total vacancies in a year in Group C and Group D posts were earmarked to be filled up. However, it was noticed that many deserving applicants were not getting adequate opportunity to get an appointment under RAS.
The Chief Secretary said in order to eradicate the bottleneck, it was felt necessary to enhance the provision from 10 per cent to 50 per cent of the total vacancies of the sanctioned strength of Group D post only so that the applicants will get maximum opportunity for appointment under RAS. Tripathy said in order to improve the efficiency in administration and timely delivery of services, it has been decided to appoint the applicants under RAS only in Group D posts instead of earlier provision of Group C and D posts. The Cabinet approved the proposal to frame a new set of rules, Odisha Civil Service (Rehabilitation Assistance) Rules, 2020 repealing the Orissa Civil Service (Rehabilitation Assistance) Rules, 1990 and subsequent amendments to it.
LTL mineral policy
The Cabinet, presided by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, also approved the proposal to amend the Long Term Linkage (LTL) mineral policy. The Chief Secretary said LTL buyers of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) who are willing to invest in mechanised ore evacuation system would be permitted linkage for more than five years. This would facilitate ramp up of production by the OMC.
Besides, the Cabinet decided that lessees having chrome ore leases will not be allowed to participate in the national e-auction. This will help in discovery of fair market price of chrome ore, a scarce raw material.
Land for STPI
The Chief Secretary said the Cabinet approved a proposal of the Revenue and Disaster Management department for lease of Government land upto three acre on free of premium and incidental charges for establishment of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centres anywhere in the State. However, STPI authorities will be liable to pay annual ground rent at the rate of one per cent of the market value of the land and cess at 75 per cent of ground rent.
2003 Rules to be amended
Proposal for amendment of the Odisha Civil Services (Criteria for Selection for appointment including) Rules, 2003 was also approved. As per provisions under sub-rule (2) of Rule-4 of the said Rules, the number of persons to be included in the list prepared under sub-rule (1) will be 1.25 times of the vacancies anticipated in the promotional post that year.
However, the above provisions were prescribed prior to introduction of post-based reservation with a view to fill up any additional vacancies in the same year instead of holding DPCs for the purpose. But after the substitution of vacancy-based roster by post based roster, additional vacancies during the year is required to be filled up by specific category of employees in the same category.
The Chief Secretary said as selection of more candidates than the anticipated vacancies sometimes invited litigations since the selected employees claimed promotion in the subsequent year basing on the clearance by DPC, the Cabinet approved change of the word ‘1.25 times’ in the Rules to
‘equal to’.