The officials of Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) and Odisha Revenue Service (ORS) have gone on a ‘mass leave’ in several districts of the state to protest an alleged incident of assault on an on-duty colleague.
The agitation by the senior officials of the Odisha government has severely affected work in several districts.
Police said that Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Additional Commissioner Ratnakar Sahoo was on Monday (June 30) allegedly dragged from his office in the capital city and assaulted by a group of miscreants.
So far, five persons, including BJP corporator Jeevan Rout, I have been arrested by the police in connection with the assault on the top official of the Odisha government, a police officer said.
The OAS Association had given a call for a ‘mass leave’ from Tuesday over the incident. However, following the assurance from Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, they postponed the stir.
Despite the decision of their apex body to defer the ‘mass leave’ agitation, OAS and ORS officers in majority of the districts, including Cuttack, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Sambalpur, Bolangir, Sonepur, Rayagada, Dhenkanal, and Mayurbhanj, went on ‘mass leave’, reports said.
Both, the government and public service works have almost been paralysed in the state because of the absence of such a large number of field-level and district officers, an officer said.
Meanwhile, the officers have demanded the arrest of all remaining persons, including the conspirator, who sent the group of miscreants to assault the OAS officer.
A meeting was also held at the BMC office in Bhubaneswar to review the security arrangements so that such type of incident would not recur in future.
BMC Mayor Sulochana Das said, “The security agency engaged by the BMC has been asked to depose before the authority. If needed, we will deploy armed security personnel to guard the office.”
The BMC Mayor further assured that the CCTV cameras in the BMC office, which were dysfunctional, will be made operational soon.
The concerned officers have been issued instructions in this regard, she said.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has called for a meeting to resolve the deadlock in government offices.
