Bhubaneswar: Hundreds of job aspirants on Monday staged a protest outside the Odisha Uniformed Services Staff Selection Commission (OUSSSC) office here, alleging a shortfall in the reservation for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) category in a recruitment notification for 7,268 posts and demanding its cancellation and reissuance.
The protesters alleged that the vacancy distribution in the notification did not adequately reflect the 11.25 per cent reservation announced for the SEBC category by the state government. They demanded that the commission review the category-wise allocation of posts and issue a revised advertisement in accordance with the applicable reservation policy.
Bibhuti Bhusan Mohapatra, ad hoc state president of the Odisha unit of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), termed the notification “defective” and urged the commission to withdraw it and issue a fresh advertisement after rectifying the alleged discrepancies.
Raising questions over the allocation of vacancies for Constables (Civil), Mohapatra said 4,219 posts had been announced under the recruitment drive. He claimed that applying the 11.25 per cent reservation to these vacancies would translate into around 474 posts for the SEBC category, against the 85 posts mentioned in the notification.
“If 11.25 per cent reservation is applied to the 4,219 Constable (Civil) posts, the number should be around 474, not 85,” he said, alleging that the vacancy distribution was inconsistent with the state’s announced reservation policy.
Mohapatra said the NSUI had been demanding 27 per cent reservation for the SEBC category. However, despite the state government’s announcement of 11.25 per cent reservation, the provision had not been properly implemented in the latest recruitment notification, he alleged.
The protesting aspirants also questioned what they described as a significant gap between the announced reservation percentage and the share of vacancies allocated to the SEBC category. They claimed that the category had been allotted only 2.014 per cent of the vacancies in the recruitment notification.
The issue of recruitment to the Odisha Industrial Security Force (OISF) was also raised during the protest. Mohapatra claimed that no recruitment drive for Constable posts in the force had been conducted for nearly a decade. According to him, the last recruitment notification was issued in 2016, while the latest advertisement provides for 2,212 posts.
Demanding corrective action, the NSUI leader said the commission should cancel the existing notification and issue a revised advertisement after addressing the alleged reservation-related discrepancies.
“If the authorities fail to take corrective measures, we will approach the High Court and challenge the notification. The legal proceedings could affect the recruitment process,” he said.
Mohapatra also questioned the officials responsible for preparing the advertisement, alleging that concerns over reservation had not been adequately addressed before the notification was issued.
The aspirants assembled outside the commission’s office to press for their demands. Mohapatra said they had gathered peacefully to raise their grievances but alleged that they were not allowed to enter the premises.
The protesters urged the authorities to examine the vacancy distribution across categories and ensure that the recruitment process complied with the applicable reservation provisions.
There was no immediate response from the OUSSSC to the allegations.
