Bhubaneswar: After removing senior IAS officer Hemant Sharma from the post of Covid purchasing committee head, the state government has relieved senior IAS officers of Covid management duty.
As many as 10 IAS officers including Sharma have been removed from the additional duty and allowed to continue their original responsibilities.
“Some of senior officers engaged in Covid duty have been spared to attend to their original administrative responsibilities. They performed very well under trying circumstances. We thank them for their dedication,” Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said in a tweet, Friday.
The government has first come up with a notification June 1 relieving senior IAS officer Hemant Sharma from the charge of supervision of procurement of all essential pharmaceutical goods and other equipment required to tackle Covid-19 in the state.
Sharma has been relieved of the charge of supervision of procurement of all essential pharmaceutical goods and other equipment required to tackle Covid-19 in the state, said a notification issued by General Administration and Public Grievance Department.
The officer has been instructed to assist Health and Family Welfare department in supervision of procurement of all essential pharmaceutical goods and availability of additional PPEs, masks and other critical care equipment for Covid-19.
The sudden removal of Sharma from charge of purchasing committee head has raised eyebrows as a few days ago a dispute had surfaced between some pharmaceutical firms and the Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC) over receiving of orders on Covid related equipment.
Though the government had cancelled orders for purchasing PPE kits, it has later received it as about 30 trucks loaded with PPE kits, sanitisers and other Covid related items arrived here for delivery.
The other officers who have been removed from the additional job are—Anu Garg, R Vineel Krishna, Surendra Kumar, Vishal Dev, Krishan Kumar, Aravind Agrawal, Sachin Ramachandra Jadhav, Bhupindra Singh Poonia and Rashmita Panda.
Meanwhile, Opposition BJP and Congress targeted the state government over the issue and alleged there is large-scale corruption in purchase of Covid related critical care equipment and demanded a CBI probe. BJD rejected the allegation and said the government will investigate the matter, if it smells corruption in this case.