BHUBANESWAR: On the eve of his 76th birthday, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced abolition of contractual appointments for good and regularisation of 57,000 contract jobs, entailing an additional expenditure of Rs 1300 crore annually.
Addressing the people virtually after a cabinet meeting, Naveen recounted the situation when he took over as CM in a “black period of Odisha’s economy” in 2000 in the aftermath of 1999 super cyclone and said he was waiting for this “golden moment.”
“Today, I am delighted to announce that the state cabinet has decided to abolish the contractual system of recruitment permanently. Even today, there are no regular recruitments in many states and they are still continuing with the contractual recruitment system. But in Odisha, the era of contractual recruitment has come to an end,” Naveen, who turns 76 on Sunday, said.
All 252 booths for voters of the Dhamnagar assembly bypoll on November 3 will be disable-friendly, with provision of wheelchairs and volunteers to help the needy, chief electoral officer S K Lohani said
Speaking at an all-party meeting on poll preparedness, Lohani said more than 12,000 voters who may need special assistance, including 7,206 who are aged 80 years and above, and 4,956 disabled, were contacted to understand if they need postal ballots. "Arrangements for postal ballots have been made for 505 voters who chose the option," he said.
"There will be 504 volunteers, two per booth, to help the disabled access the voting area while each of the 252 booths will have one wheelchair each," he said. "Ninety-eight vehicles will be on duty to ferry the disabled and elderly voters to the booths," Lohani said.
State BJP general secretary Lekhashri Smantasinghar said the administration should make a transparent list of manpower to be deployed for helping the disabled and elderly during voting. She said anganwadi and Mission Shakti workers must be kept out of such a process, as she alleged the BJD will use them to ensure voting for its candidate.
For smooth conduct of polling, platoons of BSF and CRPF - will be deployed. Around 2.38 lakh voters, including 1.23 lakh male, 1.15 lakh female and 33 transgenders, will vote in the byelection.
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