Naveen effects major bureaucratic reshuffle

Bhubaneswar, May 28 (UNI) After a reshuffle in his Cabinet, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday effected a major bureaucratic reshuffle in the state administration.

The Chief Minister had dropped four ministers on May 16, on completion of his two years of tenure in the second term and inducted six new faces, all from the Biju Janata Dal(BJD) into his council of ministers the next day.

With the reshuffle in the Cabinet, everybody was expecting a major reshuffle in the higher echelons of the administration too. As many as 15 senior IAS officers, some of them in the rank of the Additional Chief Secretary and Commissioner, were shifted from their present posts.

Development Commissioner and Chief Administrator of KBK region Ajit Kumar Tripathy was posted as Board of Revenue Member in place of G B Mukherjee, who replaced him as the Chief Administrator of the KBK region.

Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) U Sarat Chandran would be the new development Commissioner held by Mr Tripathy. Principal Secretary Steel and Mines Bhaskar Chatarjee has been shifted to School and Mass Education Department in place of Mr Gagan Dhal, who would be the new Secretary of Panchayat Raj.

Rural Development Secretary Aurobinda Behera has been transferred to Water Resource Department replacing Mr U P Singh, who was posted as Chairman cum Managing Director of the Orissa government run GRIDCO and Orissa Power Transmission Corporation.

Panchayat Raj Secretary S N Tripathy would take over as Rural Development Secretary and Secretary of Information and Technology.

Labour and Employment Secretary Jagadananda Panda has been shifted and posted as the new Special Relief Commissioner and Managing Director of the Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA).

GRIDCO CMD Suresh Chandra Mohapatra has been transferred as Revenue Divisional Commissioner(central division) in place of N K Sundaray, who has been posted as Special Secretary Planning and Coordination. Mr Mohapatra, however, would continue to hold the Chief Administrator of the Jagannath Temple.

Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO) Chairman L N Gupta has been transferred and posted as Secretary Steel and Mines while Industry Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati will be now be holding the additional charge of the Chairman of IDCO.

UNI DP SP SS LS VV1305