File photo of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi. | Photo Credit: ANI The Mohan Majhi government has put an end to the practice of ‘indiscriminate’ engagement of retired employees by previous Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government led by Naveen Patnaik by bringing out a comprehensive guideline to this effect.The Majhi government has limited the re-engagement to 1% of the sanctioned strength in the senior branch level and above for respective departments while making the selection process retired employees more stringent. The departments are now required to justify the necessity of rehiring retired employees before proceeding with the process.The rehiring of retired employees gathered pace during the years 2010-2014. Then government used to face acute shortage of manpower on account of delayed recruitment for various unavoidable reasons resulting inordinate workload on the remaining staff. To overcome difficulties, temporary engagement of employees was adopted.“In the meanwhile, it has come to the notice that different departments and offices are engaging retired government employees in a routine manner without proper justification and merely to deal with the day-to-day routine works. Often such re-engagements are done despite there being no compelling justification for such engagement. In fact, re-engagement of retired employees has become a rule rather than an exception,” the government mentioned in the guideline. This was not the objective for which the relaxations had been permitted, it added.As financial condition of Odisha has improved, there are efforts to go for regular employment. “After careful consideration, and with a view to ensure a uniform principle, government has prescribed that if vacancies arise for dealing the routine works, the said vacancies shall not be filled up by way of re-engagement of retired employees. Instead, the concerned department shall fill up the vacancies through direct or promotional recruitment,” the guideline issued on Thursday says.Selection of post-retirement engagement will be done through open advertisement and a selection committee headed by Chief Secretary will decide the re-engagement of retired employees. “Only if the committee is satisfied about the justification, it will recommend the proposal to Chief Minister for his consideration and approval. Mere recommendation by the committee shall not create any right of the employee to be considered for re-engagement. All such re-engagements shall have to be approved by CM. There shall be no Post Facto approval in any re-engagement matters,” the guideline says. It needs to be mentioned that the Chief Minister’s Office in the previous BJD government had unusually high number of retired employees who have got multiple extensions. Published – September 12, 2024 10:13 pm IST