BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa Diploma Engineers Service Association which has been opposing the proposed restructuring of engineering cadre has threatened to launch a dharna near the Assembly if their demand is ignored. Alleging that the proposed restructuring will only benefit the degree engineers, Association president Nirmal Chandra Swain said diploma engineers would continue to rot in the same position till retirement. While a degree engineer is getting four or five promotions during his service period, more than 90 per cent diploma engineers retire at the entry level post. The Government has planned to upgrade the entry level post for degree engineers from assistant engineer to assistant executive engineer while only 50 per cent posts for the diploma engineers will be upgraded to the post of assistant engineers. It has been proposed to create 698 deputy executive engineer posts and increase the number of executive engineers from 489 to 711. The other recommendations include enhancement of the strength of superintending engineer from 104 to 214, chief engineers from 37 to 54 and Engineer-in-chief from three to eight. Three major engineering departments - Water Resources, Works and Urban Development - have recommended to the Government to downsize the strength of the junior engineers from 4,940 to 2,937 and increase the top-level posts by 45 to 105 per cent. If the diploma engineers working in other departments like Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Energy and Steel and Mines is taken into consideration, their total strength will be nearly 7,000 while the strength of the degree engineers is about 2,500. Making a strong plea for upgradation of the post of diploma engineers to class-II level with their redesignation as assistant engineers, he urged the Chief Minister to do justice to the junior engineers.
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