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.
"Today, Odisha is moving ahead with confidence. A strong and empowered Odisha. This is a golden moment in the history of Odisha,” he said, adding that a notification in this regard will be published on Sunday.
Naveen, who is governing the state for the fifth term in a row, said after he took over for the first time there were many financial challenges. The state was then running on overdraft and the state government was dependent on the Reserve Bank of India for wages and means, he said.
“The state exchequer was empty. There was tremendous pressure on our economy. We were lagging in various fields, including health, education, infrastructure, agriculture, irrigation and many others. Our priority then was to bring improvement in all these sectors within our limited resources,” said the chief minister.
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