BJP slams Odisha govt's decision to appoint retired officers in DUDA

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday came down hard on the Odisha government’s decision to appoint retired officials as Project Directors (PD) of all the District Urban Development Agencies (DUDA) in the State.

Odisha BJP Vice President, Bhrugu Baxipatra termed the move as politically motivated and devised to get undue support from the DUDA during the next general elections.

Speaking to reporters, Baxipatra said, “The government has already appointed many retired officers in top positions of various departments and agencies. Now they are spreading their tentacles to districts as well. I fear, the government won’t hesitate to appoint retired officers in Block and Panchayat levels as well in the future.”

“Youths of Odisha are unemployed. The government is not taking any concrete steps to provide employment to youths. Even there is no scope for any professional for lateral entry in our State as well. Are there no eligible candidates for jobs in Odisha? If true, then questions should be raised on our education system, which cannot produce a single eligible candidate for the position of PD in the DUDA,” Baxipatra said.

“However, it seems to me that this move is a ploy devised to gain an unfair advantage for the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the coming general elections by making these retired officers in the DUDA dance to their tunes,” he alleged.

The Odisha government released a notification on April 4 for the engagement of PDs of DUDA for Monitoring & Supervising the functioning of Urban Local Bodies across the state.

As per the notification, “With growing urbanization and complexities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to effectively manage the ULBs across the state in the absence of effective supervision structure at the intermediate level. Hence, as an immediate and interim measure, Government has been pleased to decide that the position of PD, DUDA shall be filled up from the pool of superannuated officers from OAS/ OFS/ OPS/ ORS /District Statistical Officer/ District Small Savings Officer and any other District level Officers and provide them with appropriate orientation, training, and handholding along with a strong PMU and logistics to meet various functional requirements.”

Meanwhile, the BJD has defended the government’s preference for retired officers over youths or on-job employees.

Responding to BJP’s allegations, ruling party Chief Whip, Prashant Muduli said, “There is nothing new in employing experienced bureaucrats in top positions of DUDA. In fact, in comparison to Odisha, the Centre has more such examples.”

(Reported By Ashok Brahma, OTV)