Rourkela: Salaries of the employees of Rourkela Development Authority (RDA) for the month of March have been delayed due to transfer of an officer, sources stated here Wednesday. They said that employees are yet to receive their salaries as the signing authority, RDA secretary Chandrakant Mallick has been transferred on the orders of the Election Commission. Employees on condition of anonymity pointed out that such a delay has never occurred earlier.
Even though the first week of April has elapsed, employees are not sure when they will get their salaries for March. “Usually we get our salaries on the 1st of every month unless it is a Sunday or a public holiday. Then we get salaries on the 2nd of the month. This time however, everything has gone haywire,” said an employee. After Mallick’s transfer, assistant commissioner of Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) Pallabini Nayak has been posted in his place with the additional charge of secretary, RDA.
However, she has not been given any financial power or signing authority. “She (Pallabini) has been posted without any powers. Hence our salaries have been delayed, and we are not sure when we will get it as the Model Code of Conduct has come into force.” said another employee. “We hope at least someone will notice our plight and do the needful. Or else we will go without salaries for more than three months and it will be very difficult for us to manage things,” informed another employee. Due to the absence of a full-time secretary in the RDA, other official matters are also getting delayed. Work like approval of plans, selling and purchasing of plots and transfer of ownership have more or less stopped. Unfortunately for the RDA, following the transfer of Dolamani Kandher in 2004, the office never got a full-time secretary.
Following Kandher’s transfer, the responsibilities associated with the post have always been entrusted to the additional district magistrate (ADM), Rourkela. Sources pointed out that in the absence of a full-time secretary, the RDA has failed to start any housing projects in the last 20 years. For its income, the RDA has to depend on rents and fees associated with various other types of work.
