Orissa freezing 50k jobs

bhubaneswar: describing the state's fiscal situation as grim, the orissa government today said it was freezing 50,000 posts and taking away ltc and leave encashment benefits from officers of the all india services and those belonging to class i and above from april. keeping in view the state's financial situation, we have to take certain steps to wriggle out of the debt trap we are in, state finance minister ramakrushna patnaik said on monday. the minister said orissa's financial situation was grim and the government was running the affairs by availing overdraft for 241 days, and through ways and means advance for 121 days a year. this left us with only three days breathing space in a year, he said. patnaik said the latest measure to cut expenditure showed the government's resolve in pushing ahead with its fiscal restructuring process and taking tough decisions involving employees at the top. the minister said there would a lot of savings through the move but did not give any figures. no decision had been taken to suspend the same perks for officials belonging to class ii and downwards. the government has also initiated steps to cut about ten per cent of the five lakh posts without resorting to abolition of posts. we have managed it through voluntary retirement scheme and not filling up the resulting vacancies, he said. patnaik said a joint appraisal mission of the world bank and the department for international development (dfid) of uk visited orissa last week and held discussions with the state government on the latter's request for loans to continue the financial restructuring process. the matter would then be placed before the board of directors of the world bank after which a final decision would be taken, the minister said, adding funds totalling rs 3,000 crore were likely to be provided in the first phase. of this, rs 1,800 crore would come as soft loan from the world bank and rs 1,200 crore as grant from the dfid. the financial restructuring process was initiated by the previous congress government which had signed an mou with the central government in april 1999. the joint appraisal mission visited orissa at centre's behest to study the progress of the fiscal restructuring process, patnaik said. the team, in its aide memoire, described orissa's achievement in fiscal reforms as splendid and noteworthy, he said. asked as to when the orissa government hoped to turn the corner financially, mr patnaik said the government had notified the 11th finance commission that it would be able to reduce its revenue deficit to zero by 2005. but it might take the government a decade to restore normalcy in the fiscal situation, he added. denying reports in a section of the local media that both the world bank and dfid were dictating terms to the state government, patnaik said it was a misnomer that was being spread. the team has agreed to recommend our case and no one will ever venture to interfere in our budget preparation as is being alleged, he said. on the others hand, the state government had told the world bank and dfid that it would not abide by certain clauses of the mou signed by the previous regime which included not filling up vacancies in all posts and ban on creation of new posts. we have told them that we don't quite agree with that even if the previous government had a different perception. we said that the ban on recruitment should not be made applicable for primary school teachers, doctors, nursing personnel, para-medical staff, drivers and police personnel, he said. the orissa government was reducing the bureaucratic load as advised by the joint appraisal mission, mr patnaik said while pointing out that the government's salary bill at rs 1,500 crore per annum was about 175 per cent of the state's total annual revenue receipts of around rs 900 crore. we are in a situation where we have no option but to incur loan to repay loan and the interest burden, the minister said, adding orissa'a total loan burden, which stood at rs 18,100 crore when the bjd-bjp government took over, had risen to rs 21,000 crore now. the state government had protested against the centre's decision to charge ten per cent service charge on loan extended to it by the world bank and even grant given by the dfid. this is unfortunate and the last straw on the camel's back, he said. it's the central government which signs the agreement with the world bank and dfid for funds provided by the latter before it was passed on to the states, the minister pointed out. the government had taken up the matter with the dfid officials and they have promised to impress upon the central government not to charge any service charge on the grant provided by them, he said.

Orissa freezing 50k jobs

BHUBANESWAR: Describing the state’s fiscal situation as “grim”, the Orissa government today said it was freezing 50,000 posts and taking away LTC and leave encashment benefits from officers of the All India Services and those belonging to class I ...

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