Amendment in Odisha Civil Services Rules among 9 proposals gets cabinet nod

Bhubaneswar: Making necessary amendment in Odisha Civil Services Rules, the state cabinet today approved a proposal for the regulation to appoint legal heirs of the deceased government employees to posts of Group D.

As per the decision, a member of family of a government employee, who dies while being in service in a Group C and Group D posts, will be rehabilitated to any post of Group D on compassionate grounds.

This was among nine key proposals received nod from the government at the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Lok Seva Bhawan following council of ministers meeting today.

Earlier, there had been a provision under Odisha Civil Services (Rehabilitation Assistance) Rules that a maximum of 10% of the total vacancies in a year in Group C and D posts will be embarked to be filled up by applicants under Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme (RAS). As a result of which it came into notice of the government that many deserving applicants were not getting adequate opportunities under RAS. With amendment to the rules, the provision was enhanced from 10% upto 50% vacancies of the total sanctioned strength of the Group D posts only.

Besides, the government approved 5 rural piped water supply projects to provide safe drinking water in Sundargarh district out of Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) funding. With execution of the projects, over 3 lakh people under five blocks of the district will be benefited.

While 1,25,928 people of 262 villages under Gurundia, Koira and Lahunipada blocks will be provided safe drinking water by implementation of three projects at an expenditure of Rs 320 crore, the two projects that will cost Rs 340 crore will benefit 2,04,028 people of 219 villages under Kuanramunda and Nuagaon blocks. All the five projects have been targeted for completion within a period of 24 months.

Also, the long term ore linkage policy of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) was promulgated at the cabinet meeting today. Under the policy, the long term linkage (LTL) buyers of OMC who are willing to invest in mechanised ore evacuation system will be permitted for the LTL linkage for duration of more than five years. This will facilitate ramp up of production by the OMC. With the amendment to the said policy, the 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.

Moreover, the state cabinet has also approved a proposal of Revenue & Disaster Management Department for lease of government land upto 3 acre on free of premium and free incidental charges basis for establishment of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) centres anywhere in the state. However, the STPI authorities will be liable to pay annual ground rent at the rate of 1 percent of market value of the land and cess at the rate of 75% of the ground rent.