BHUBANESWAR : With the surge in the Covid-19 positive cases becoming unmanageable during the second wave, the Odisha government on Thursday appointed 21 senior IAS officers as observers for the affected districts. While Principal Secretary of Water Resources department Anu Garg and Labour Commissioner N Thirumala Naik will be in charge of Bhubaneswar which has emerged as a hot spot. Secretary of Energy department Nikunja Bihari Dhal will look after Jharsuguda and Sundargarh districts. Sundargarh has reported the highest number of cases during the last several days.
Similarly, Principal Secretary in the MSME department Satyabrat Sahu and Special Secretary to government in the Rural Development department Benudhar Behera have been assigned Balangir, Bargarh and Nuapada districts which have been witnessing a surge in cases.
Principal Secretary of Commerce and Transport department Madhusudan Padhi has been kept in charge of Balasore and Bhadrak districts and his counterpart in Steel and Mines department Surendra Kumar and Srikant Prusty, Special Secretary in the Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts department will be in charge of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts respectively.
Officers kept in charge of other districts are Principal Secretary in Housing and Urban Development G Mathivathanam (Ganjam and Gajapati); Principal Secretary in Industries department Hemant Sharma and Suresh Chandra Dalai, Special Secretary in Housing and Urban Development department (Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara).
Revenue Secretary Bishnupada Sethi and Gopabandhu Satpathy, Managing Director of Odisha Cooperative Bank, would look after Angul, Deogarh and Dhenkanal. Secretary of Labour department Chitra Arumugam has been assigned Sambalpur and Sonepur districts. Swaswat Mishra, Secretary of Higher Education department and Bishnu Prasad Mishra, Secretary of Odisha Sub-Ordinate Staff Selection Commission have been kept in charge of Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Boudh.
Secretary of FS&CW VV Yadav and Rashi Khan, Additional Secretary in School and Mass Education department have been assigned Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Nabarangpur. RDCs Temjenwapang Ao and Anil Kumar Samal have been kept in charge of Gajapati besides, Cuttack, Nayagarh, Puri and Khurda (rural) respectively. Director of Estates Susanta Mohapatra will also look after Cuttack city and Cuttack rural.