Kendrapada: After officers in Cuttack, salary of employees in 51 government offices of Odisha’s Kendrapada district for the month of November has been withheld for alleged negligence.
The action followed a review of Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS) usage in government offices. The offices had failed to switch to the mandatory OSWAS, which aims to promote a paperless environment across the administration, despite repeated instructions.
“During a review of OSWAS usage, I came to know that out of 124 offices in the district, only 73 were working on the digital workflow system while the remaining 51 continued to function manually in violation of the government order. Hence, salaries of employees in these 51 offices were stopped,” Collector Raghuram R Iyer was quoted as saying.
Officials said the Collector’s order—“no work on OSWAS, no salary”—aims to enforce accountability and speed up the transition to a fully digital workflow. The administration maintains that the shift is essential to streamline file movement, ensure transparency, and improve service delivery.
Sources said that around 300 employees, many of them in panchayat offices, may be affected.
Earlier, the Cuttack administration had withheld the salaries of 36 officers for the month of November over dismal performance in disposal of public grievances with the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell.