Odisha Govt To Reduce Service Experience Criteria For OSS Officers

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to reduce the service experience criteria for  Odisha Secretariat Service (OSS) offices for promotion to next higher grades after a proposal to this effect was approved by the State Cabinet at a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here on Saturday evening.

According to the proposal, the state government has decided to reduce the service experience criteria in respect of Assistant Section Officers (ASOs) from 12 years of continuous service to 8 years for promotion to the rank of Section Officer.

For promotion to the post of Deputy Secretary and Joint Secretary, the service experience in the feeder post of Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary respectively shall be reduced from 3 years to 1 year. However, there will be no service experience criteria in the feeder post of Joint Secretary for promotion to the post of Additional Secretary.

As such, promotion to the post of Additional Secretary shall be considered by the Committee from among the eligible Officers in the feeder grade of Joint Secretary as per merit with due regard to seniority.

The cabinet also approved another proposal for amendment to the Odisha Police Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules 2013 and Odisha Armed Police Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules 2013 to the extent of reconstitution of Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC).

Under the proposal, the government will reconstitute the DPC for the expeditious promotion of officers of Odisha Police Service (OPS) and Odisha Armed Police Service (OAPS).

Besides, the cabinet gave approval to another proposal for amendment to the Odisha Government Drivers (Light Motor Vehicle) Group ‘C’ (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2013.

Following the approval of the proposal, the Finance department will create one post of the head driver in the government departments, Heads of Department, district and subordinate offices where the establishments will have four posts of the driver and the senior driver put together.