Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Friday effected a minor reshuffle in the IAS cadres by transferring two senior bureaucrats from their posts and handing them new tasks.
Accordingly, the General Administration and Public Grievance Department has issued a notification to this effect Friday evening.
As per the order, 2000-batch IAS officer, Sujata Rout Karthikeyan, Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Department of Mission Shakti with an additional charge of Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Govt., Odia Language, Literature & Culture Department, has been appointed as Special Secretary to Government, Finance Department.
Similarly, 2001-batch IAS officer, Shalini Pandit, Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Govt. the Health & Family Welfare Department can remain in an additional charge of Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Department of Mission Shakti and Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Odia Language, Literature & Culture Department.
“The additional appointment of Smt. Sujata Rout Karthikeyan, IAS as Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Odia Language, Literature & Culture Department shall stand terminated from the date Smt. Shalini Pandit, IAS takes over,” the GA&PG Dept order read.
The move came a day after the Election Commission of India ordered the transfer of senior bureaucrat Sujata Karthikeyan, secretary of Odisha’s Mission Shakti department, to a non-public dealing department with immediate effect.
The orders were issued after the Bharatiya Janata Party accused the bureaucrat, wife of powerful Biju BJD leader VK Pandian, of “misusing” her position to mobilise women attached with self-help groups “for electoral gains for the Biju Janata Dal”.
In its representation, the BJP demanded that Karthikeyan should not be given any responsibility till the simultaneous general polls are over as she was “indulging in open, blatant and gross, misuse of authority, government machinery and manpower for influencing voters through SVEEP for electoral gains of BJD.”
