OTS for ORHDC, Ipicol approved

The State Cabinet on Tuesday approved One-Time Settlement (OTS) for two state public sector undertakings- Orissa Rural Housing & Development Corporation (ORHDC) and Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol).

"The Cabinet has approved an OTS of Rs 162.41 crore for ORHDC. A loan of Rs 162 crore taken from Housing & Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) is pending on the state PSU. ORHDC had taken the money from HUDCO to advance loans to the poor people who were affected by the supercyclone in 1999. While ORHDC will gradually recover the loan from the people, the OTS has been approved to avoid payment of interest to HUDCO”, Chief Secretary B K Patnaik told mediapersons after the Cabinet meeting.

ORHDC has so far disbursed loans worth Rs 566 crore of which it has recovered Rs 180 crore.

Similarly, the Cabinet approved an OTS scheme for Ipicol on the lines of Orissa State Financial Corporation (OSFC).

"As many as 285 units have been financed by Ipicol in the past 35 years. The total outstanding amount of Ipicol is not known but the OTS is expected to benefit 90-odd units”, said Patnaik.

The Cabinet also gave its seal of approval to Orissa Taxation & Accounts Service Rules-2011.

The new service envisages creation of 563 Class-II posts which includes 290 posts for commercial taxes department, 132 for treasury and 47 for accounts department.

While 50 per cent of the posts would be filled up through direct recruitment, 30 per cent will be filled through promotion of officers in Orissa Subordinate Finance Service and the remaining 20 per cent through selection.

Besides, the Cabinet also gave its nod to Orissa Administrative Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules-2011.

According to the service rules, there will be a total of 1416 posts under OAS beginning from the rank of Junior Class-I officers (OAS officers) to that of Special Secretary.

This includes 984 junior Class-I posts, 210 senior Class-I posts, 143 posts for Super Time Scale officers equivalent to joint secretary, 71 posts of additional secretary and eight posts of special secretary.

It has also been decided to hold a common competitive examination from 2011 for three junior Class-I services- OAS, OFS and OPS as well as five Class-II services- revenue service, taxation & accounts service, cooperative service, employment service and welfare service.

Further, the State Cabinet has decided to come out with the Orissa Litigation policy as per the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission. The objective of the policy would be to reduce the number of litigations and also help redress grievances of the people without moving courts.

Under the policy, a Grievance Redressal Mechanism would be set up at each department. An empowered committee has already been constituted under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary.

Other decisions taken by the State Cabinet are approving block grants for madrasas, restructuring the cadres of Orissa Fisheries Service & Orissa Subordinate Fisheries Service, approving the annual report for 2006-07 of Orissa Public Service Commission (OPSC) and relaxing the upper age limit under Orissa Civil Service (Fixation of Upper Age Limits) Rules by five years.