BHUBANESWAR: Ahead of the simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the Odisha government on Monday effected a massive bureaucratic reshuffle, transferring 38
IAS
officers, including 17 district collectors as well as the chief administrator of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (
SJTA
).
As per a notification issued by the general administration & public grievance department, Mayurbhanj, Cuttack, Puri,
Khurda
, Nayagarh, Angul, Keonjhar, Jajpur,
Koraput
, Kendrapada, Boudh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Sonepur, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Balangir districts have got new collectors.
Government sources said some of the bureaucrats have been shifted in accordance with the transfer guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India for poll-bound Odisha.
Ashish Thakare, who had been serving as Keonjhar collector since January 19, 2018, has been appointed as collector of Mayurbhanj. Another long-serving collector Vineet Bharadwaj, who had been holding the fort in Mayurbhanj since April 21, 2018, has been transferred and appointed as collector of Cuttack district.
Days after the grand inauguration of Shree Mandira Parikrama Prakalpa in Puri, the government has transferred SJTA chief administrator Ranjan Kumar Das and posted him as the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) of central division and in-charge RDC of southern division. Das had joined the post of SJTA’s chief on April 29, 2023. The government did not cite any reason for Das's abrupt transfer.
Samarth Verma, who was appointed Puri collector on January 1, 2021, has been transferred and appointed as the additional chief administrator of SJTA, the government notification said. State election commission secretary Bijay Kumar Dash will replace
Verma
as the Puri district collector.
“The post of additional chief administrator, SJTA, is declared equivalent in status and responsibility to the post of additional secretary to government provided in the IAS cadre of the state,” the notification read.
Balangir collector Chanchal Rana has been appointed as Khurda collector, Rayagada collector Swadha Dev Singh was shifted to Nayagarh, Koraput collector Abdaal Akhtar will take over charge in Angul, while Malkangiri collector Vishal Singh has been moved to Keonjhar. Four 2018-batch and six 2019-batch IAS officers have got maiden posting as collectors of different districts.