Bhubaneswar: In its maiden major bureaucratic reshuffle post elections, the state government Friday re-allocated the postings of 32 IAS officials, including several district Collectors.
The General Administration (GA) department has issued a notification affecting the transfer of IAS officials working in different departments of the state government. One important aspect of the reshuffle is that many district Collectors have been transferred to the Secretariat with responsibilities of heading different government departments.
The government has named nine Collectors and District Magistrates who will now head different state government departments. As per the GA notification, Collectors of Khurda, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Nuapada, Boudh, Balasore and Jharsuguda districts have been shifted to the Secretariat.
The reshuffle also included the transfer of Additional Secretary to Chief Minister, Niranjan Sahu, as the Director of the Higher Education Department. Sahu has been given the additional charge of Labour Commissioner. Cuttack DM Aravind Agrawal will now be the Director of the Social Welfare Department, while Khurda Collector Bhupendra S Poonia has been made the Project Director of Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA).
At the same time, many Collectors have been shifted to other districts. As per the list, Sitansu Rout, who was serving as the Collector of Boudh, will now be the Collector of Khurda. Similarly, Koraput Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborthy will be the new Collector of Balasore.