Too many departments, too few officers

BALASORE: Maitreyee Bhattacharjee, a 1997 batch OAS officer, begins her day as a revenue officer and finishes it up as an establishment officer. In between, she also works as District Emergency officer, Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation officer and dons many other roles. In fact, this Deputy Collector hops from office to office to manage her daily share of work. She is in charge of eight key sections _ Revenue, Establishment, Tauzi, Land Records, Emergency, Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation, Compensation and RTI cell. Sources said Bhattacharjee is overseeing the departments all alone which were being managed by three OAS officers earlier.  Not only Bhattacharjee, three other officers are also handling multiple departments.  A 2000 batch OAS officer Manorama Bhuyan, posted as Deputy Collector, has been in-charge of District Election officer along with General, Miscellaneous and Census works.   The case of another Deputy Collector Priyadarshini Mallick is no different. She is incharge of five sections _ Judicial, Record Room, Nizarat, Development and Red Cross.  While Bhuyan manages her duty at the district election office, Mallick tries to juggle between the Collectorate and Red Cross building.     But 1990 batch OAS officer Maheswar Panigrahi feels hassled as he has to manage three key posts as Project Director (PD) of DRDA, District Project Coordinator (DPC) of Sarva Siksha Abhijan (SSA) and Additional Project Director (Administration) of DRDA.    Sources said the post of PD at the DRDA in the district has been lying vacant for the last four months. Likewise, DPC of SSA, four deputy collector, two BDO (Bahanaga and Simulia), 11 additional tehsildar and 12 ABDO posts have been lying vacant for the last couple of years. Remuna tehsil, having 328 villages, is being managed by one tehsildar and three clerks.   The district has two sub-divisions and 11 tehsils besides 12 blocks. Of the four deputy sub-collector posts, three are lying vacant. Hundreds of Class-III employee posts also have not been filled up.       While the officials are tight-lipped about the scenario, the ultimate sufferers are the people.  Files pile up in various departments due to lack of regular officers and required number of clerks.   In-charge Collector Sribatsa Jena said he had written to the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) and the State Government to fill up the vacancies as soon as possible.  He admitted to the difficulties being faced by the officers with additional duties.  “The Government has to decide on the recruitments,” he added.