Summary:
The association has demanded that the chief minister Naveen Patnaik intervene to resolve the crisis at the earliest.“A majority of us have been working for the past 22 years as contractual staff. On several occasions, we demanded regularisation of our jobs but to no avail. Also, after the evaluation of the answer papers, they are engaged in tabulation of the marks.School and mass education minister Badrinarayan Patra could not be contacted for comment as repeated calls to his mobile number and office number went unanswered. However, this time we are determined to see our demand is met,” said Biswaranjan Parichha, general secretary of the association.An official source said contractual staff play a pivotal role in conducting the annual examination of Classes I to VIII conducted at district level under the supervision of Opepa as they are engaged in preparing, printing and despatching of questions papers to the schools. Koraput: Intensifying their stir to pressure the government to meet their demand, members of the Odisha primary education programme authority (Opepa) employees services association have threatened not to cooperate during the annual examination of primary and upper primary schools scheduled to be held in March.Around 1,200 contractual staff of the association are on a dharna at the Lower PMG in Bhubaneswar since February 4, demanding regularisation of their jobs..