Bhubaneswar, Sep 7: The Odisha Cabinet on Monday approved the restructuring of the Odisha Agriculture Services Cadre to strengthen administrative and technical manpower and improve the delivery of services to farmers across the state.
Under the restructuring, the sanctioned strength of Additional Director of Agriculture posts will increase from two to six, while Joint Director of Agriculture (L-I) posts will rise from seven to 12.
The number of Chief District Agriculture Officer/Joint Director of Agriculture (L-II) posts will increase from 33 to 45, while Agriculture District Officer/Deputy Director of Agriculture posts will go up from 102 to 150.
Similarly, Block Agriculture Officer/Assistant Director of Agriculture posts will increase from 380 to 400.
At the base level, however, the sanctioned strength of Assistant Agriculture Officer posts will be reduced from 789 to 700. Despite these changes, the overall sanctioned strength of the Agriculture Services Cadre will remain unchanged.
Soil Conservation Services Cadre
The Cabinet also approved the restructuring of the existing Odisha Soil Conservation Services Cadre, while retaining its overall sanctioned strength at 319 posts.
The restructuring will focus on strengthening the cadre at senior levels. As part of the exercise, two posts of Additional Director, Soil Conservation will be created by abolishing the existing post of Director (Technical).
In addition, six posts of Joint Director, Soil Conservation will be created, while the number of Deputy Director, Soil Conservation posts will rise from 29 to 32.
At the same time, eight posts of Assistant Director, Soil Conservation will be abolished. The sanctioned strength of Assistant Soil Conservation Officers, the entry-level post, will remain unchanged at 204.
