The contractual employees of all the civic bodies including Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and NACs in Odisha staged a protest demanding regularisation of their jobs.
The contractual employees included Community Organisers, Computer Programmers and Accountants.
They sat on a dharna at Lower PMG square in Bhubaneswar and threatened to not return to work unless their demands are met.
“It has been 12 years since our appointment as contractual employee. We cleared the exams and interview to get the job. We are purely contractual employees. But we do not know which group we belong to,” said a protester.
“Our job is very demanding. We are needed to implement all the State and Central government schemes on the ground. An MIS programmer is needed to even fill forms. We provide all kinds of data from the ground to the government. MBPY Beneficiaries would not get their allowances without us. We need permanent employment,” said another protesting Community Organiser.
Another protesting Community Organiser said, “We toil on the ground so that our Department Secretaries and Directors receive awards for a job well-done. But it is unfortunate that we have been largely neglected by the government.”
It is pertinent to mention here that the contractual employees were appointed in several civic bodies across Odisha 11 years back expecting to be regularised after six years. But it has been 11 years, they are still languishing as contractual employees.
Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced abolishment of contractual employment system in Odisha in October 2022.
Making the announcement, the CM had said, "All contractual employees will be regularized and a notification to this effect will be brought out in two days."
However, despite the promise, the contractual employees of civic bodies remain so till now.