Executive Officer for each Gram Panchayat in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Aug 20 (UNI) The Orissa government will appoint executive officers in all the gram panchayats of the state for their smooth functioning, Panchayati Raj Minister Raghunath Mohanty told the Assembly today.

Replying to a question of Mr Shasi Bhushan Behera (BJD), Mr Mohanty said the proposal to promote the panchayat secretaries as the executive officers was under active consideration of the government.

He said consultation with the law department in this regard was going on and a decision would be taken soon.

The Minister denied that the functioning of the panchayat was affected in any way after the High Court in its order in July last had ruled that the Village Agriculture Workers (VAW) could not work as executive officers under the gram panchayats any more.

UNI BD-DP KK RL AS1738