BHUBANESWAR : The state government on Monday effected a massive reshuffle of 37 IAS officers including 17 district collectors ahead of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections likely to be held in April.
The transfers of the district collectors have come following a directive from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to state governments to shift officers to ensure that those connected with the conduct of elections do not serve in their home districts or places where they have served for long.
The officials transferred include the chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) Ranjan Kumar Das and Puri district collector Samarth Verma. The shifting of Das as revenue divisional commissioner (RDC-Central) has come days after the inauguration of the Srimandir Parikrama project on January 17. Das will also remain in charge of RDC-South.
Verma has been appointed as the additional chief administrator of SJTA. The post of additional chief administrator of SJTA has been declared equivalent in status and responsibility to the post of additional secretary. Secretary of the state election commission Bijay Kumar Dash will replace him as the collector of Puri.
Those transferred include Asish Thakare, collector of Keonjhar district after more than five years. He has been posted as collector Mayurbhanj district.
Govt shifts 17 collectors in major IAS reshuffle
Vishal Singh, Malkangiri collector, has been appointed as Keonjhar district collector. Collectors of Khurda and Cuttack districts K Sudarshan Chakravarthy and Narahari Sethy respectively have also been shifted. While Chakravarthy has been posted as the director of minor minerals, Sethy will be the additional secretary in the water resources department. Vineet Bharadwaj, district collector of Mayurbhanj has been brought in as collector of Cuttack, Chanchal Rana, collector Balangir, will be the Khurda district collector.
Besides Balangir, collectors of western Odisha districts of Sambalpur and Bargarh have also been changed. While Sambalpur collector Ananya Das has been posted as the joint secretary in handlooms, textiles and handicrafts department, Bargarh collector Monisha Banerjee has been posted as director, social welfare.
Collectors of Rayagada and Koraput districts have also been shifted. Rayagada collector Swadha Dev Singh has been posted as collector of Nayagarh district. Koraput collector Abdaal Akhtar has been posted as collector of Angul. Angul collector Siddhartha Shankar Swain has been posted as commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation in place of Nikhil Pavan Kalyan. Kalyan has been posted as director rural development. Besides, Jajpur collector Chakravarthi Singh Rathore, Kendrapara collector Amrit Ruturaj, Boudh collector Nrusingha Charan Swain and Sonepur collector Bimalendu Ray have also been transferred.