Dharmendra bats for 4,541 ‘Shikshya Sahayaks’ of 2003-04 Batch
Insight Bureau: Union P&NG and SD&E Minister Dharmedra Pradhan has written a letter to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, requesting him to reconsider employment of 4,541 Shikshya Sahayaks, who had to suffer due to alleged misunderstanding of S&ME Department of Odisha.
The Union Minister, based on the petition of P. Dhaneswar Rao, General Secretary, 2003-04 batch Shikshya Sahayak Association, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on the subject of regularization of their employment, sought to draw attention of the CM to the March 2003 advertisement, which invited applications for 9,541 posts.
A merit list was prepared then and 5,000 Shikshya Sahayaks were engaged by the District Collectors. Further, in September 2003, SME Department of Odisha issued letters to all Collectors to engage another 10,682 Shikshya Sahayaks out of the pending applications from the same panel of merit instead of going for fresh advertisement. This included 4,541 unfilled posts of March Advertisement and 6,141 fresh vacancies.
The second phase of engagement was challenged before the Orissa High Court, which set aside the appointment of total 15,682 Shikshya Sahayaks and asked for the issuance of fresh advertisement allowing candidates to take another chance to appear in the examination. Later, only freshly appointed 10,682 candidates had to appear in the recruitment process 2004-05 in which only 5,292 Shikshya Sahayaks did not come successful. Subsequently, they were disengaged from the service by respective collectors.
“It is pertinent to note that 4,541 Shikshya Sahayaks employed against the advertisement dated March, 2003 were technically valid, but due to misunderstanding of S&ME Department of Odisha, they were disengaged from the job. Further, Odisha Govt has not allowed the seniority list based on their appointment as per 2003 Advertisement. So, I take this opportunity to request you for a favourable consideration of the above request for the overall well being of the Shikshya Sahayaks”, wrote Dharmendra Pradhan.