Salaries of All Mahanga Block employees withheld after ignoring cancelled holiday and official orders
Published By : Bratati Baral
| August 1, 2025 12:52 PM
Cuttack, Aug 1: In a stern administrative move, the salaries of all employees in the Mahanga block of Cuttack district have been withheld following their absence from duty despite a canceled holiday. The directive was issued by the District Project Director after it was found that no employees reported to the office on Saturday, July 26, a day that had earlier been declared a working day due to heavy rainfall.
In an official letter addressed to the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Mahanga, the District Project Director stated that the July salaries should be stopped for all block employees who failed to comply with the revised order. The absence was viewed as a serious lapse in duty.
Adding to the concerns, complaints were received during a district-level grievance redressal camp about the malfunctioning of the biometric attendance system at the block office. Although the District Collector had previously instructed the Block Officer in writing to repair the machine immediately, the order reportedly went unheeded.
The directive mentions that the employees' failure to act on the Collector's instructions also contributed to the decision to freeze salary disbursement.
The matter has sparked public debate, with questions being raised about why the block authorities failed to implement clear instructions from the district administration. The letter instructing the salary freeze was sent to the BDO on July 30.
