BHUBANESWAR: Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik directed all departments and district collectors to give timely promotion to Government employees in different cadres, several genuine concerns of employees have not been addressed by the State Government.
Though the General Administration and Public Grievance department has come out with a resolution of January 10 asking government departments to prepare a list of employees to be promoted to the next higher grades before December 31 of the preceding year without fail, there is no clarity on implementation of the select list.
“It has come to the notice of the State Government that in cases where vacancies accrued with effect from the first day of January, even if the department promotion committee (DPC) is held in time, the incumbent is actually promoted after a gap of several weeks due to compliance of formalities like approval of the select list and relieving them from the place of work to join the new place of posting on promotion,” the resolution said.
The Government has decided that the DPC will be held in the second fortnight of December and the select list of the previous year prepared before December 31, the resolution stated.
While recognising the fact that many government servants do not get career progression due to abnormal delay in holding DPC as per provisions provided in different care rules, the GA&PG department in a separate resolution said the proposed Promotion Adalats to be constituted at the Additional Chief Secretary-level will fix the responsibility on erring officers denying timely promotion to eligible government employees.
Welcoming the State Government’s decision to fix responsibility on delinquent officers for either not holding DPC in time or sitting over the approved list for promotion, leaders of several government service associations said the department has not spelt out how to compensate those who were deprived of promotion for no fault of theirs.
“The recommendations of DPC or selection committee are advisory in nature and should be duly placed before the Government/appointing authority for approval. Many a times, the DPC/SC encroaches into the area of the Government or appointing authority while recommending the cases of suitable officers for promotion,” said senior officer dealing with promotion matters in the GA department.
This is despite the fact that the role of DPC/SC are clearly defined in the rules. “To provide justice to the promoted employees, the select list approved by the competent authority should be implemented with effect from January 1 or from the day the vacancy arose,” said a leader of the Odisha Secretariat Service Association (OSSA).