Cabinet approves formation of state legal service

Cabinet approves formation of state legal service With the increase in litigations in different courts involving government authorities from the district to state level hampering work, the cabinet today approved the formation of the state legal service cadre for a smooth and efficient management of the cases.The legal service will consist of assistant director (law) in group-B at base level, deputy director

(law) in Group-A (junior), joint director (law) in Group-A (senior), additional director (law) and director (law). A candidate possessing bachelor's degree in law will be eligible for the service. The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) will conduct the recruitment to the service, chief secretary AP Padhi said and added that the recruitment test will have a written and an interview. Stating that the service will be under the administrative control of the home department, he said the existing legal officers will be merged in the new cadre in a phased manner.

The legal officers will be appointed in district offices, heads of departments, government departments and other government offices except the law department. At present, there are neither any recruitment rules and nor any executive instructions regulating the appointment of legal officers in government departments, heads of departments, district and other government offices except the Law Department.

The cabinet approved the proposal for the formulation of the Odisha Secretariat Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2016 to replace the different set of rules governing the service conditions of employees of the Odisha Secretariat Service.  The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) will conduct the recruitment to the service.

The upper age limit for recruitment to the post of lecturer in government ayurvedic colleges in the state was enhanced to 40 years. It was also decided to reduce the teaching experience of lecturers for promotion to the post of Readers from eight to five years by amending the existing services rules.

The cabinet approved the operational guidelines for payment of town area surcharge at two percent of the sale value in shape of grants to different development authorities/regional improvement trusts/special planning authorities out of the stamp duty collected at five percent in respect of the transfer of immovable property in those areas.

This guideline is going to be effective from the 2017-18 financial year and the grants will be paid in 2017-18 based on the actuals of 2016-17.

The cabinet decided to form the Odisha Municipal Administrative Service, the Odisha Municipal Engineering Service, the Odisha Municipal Finance Service, the Odisha Municipal Planning Service, the

Odisha Municipal Community Development Service, the Odisha Municipal Ministerial Service, the Odisha Municipal Public Health Service and Odisha Municipal e-Governance Service for all urban local bodies.