Bhubaneswar: Five more officials including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), an administrative service (OAS) officer, a police Inspector and two municipality Executive Officers were given compulsory retirement by the state government Tuesday.
The officials were facing corruption cases and were considered fit for compulsory retirement. With this, as many as 151 officials have been ordered compulsory retirement by the government, so far, on grounds of inefficiency and dereliction of duty.
Details of the five officers who were given compulsory retirements are as given below:
1. Former tehsildar of Bonai in Sundargarh district and OAS officer Sushil Kumar Kujur. He had embezzled MGNREGS funds while working as block development officer (BDO) of Sadar in Dhenkanal district.
Kujur had produced fabricated documents on tree plantation programs undertaken in different villages due to which the government suffered a loss of Rs 24.22 lakh. He was arrested and taken into custody.
2. Similarly, the second person is a senior officer of Odisha Police named Rabindra Kumar Sethi who was working as deputy superintendent at Kalahandi Investigative Units for Crime against Women (IUCAW). He was caught red-handed by the anti-graft agency while accepting a bribe of Rs 5,000 following which he was arrested and taken into custody.
3. Likewise, police Inspector of Bangomunda in Bolangir district Binod Bihari Nayak was caught by a team of Vigilance sleuths near Bargarh toll gate while traveling from Bangomunda to Kuchinda in a sedan. The sleuths had seized cash of Rs 2,06,220 from his possession.
Subsequently, during a thorough search at Nayak’s official residence in Bangomunda, another Rs 3,80,920 was recovered. A total of Rs 5,87,140 was recovered from his possession. Later, he was arrested November 30, last year.
Also read: Additional SP Trinath Mishra under Vigilance scanner, raids underway
Detailed probe into a Vigilance case surfaced that the car (bearing registration number OD-15 K-6111), in which Nayak was traveling, was registered in the name of a man Mohammad Salim of Sambalpur. The vehicle owner has four cases registered against him at Dhanupali police station and one more at Sadar police station.
4. The fourth official in the list is erstwhile executive officer of Basudevpur Municipality in Bhadrak district identified as Tapas Ranjan Jena.
5. Similarly, a former executive officer of Karanjia Notified Area Council (NAC) in Mayurbhanj district Bijaya Krushna Nayak has also been given compulsory retirement.
The senior OAS officer Kujur, DSP Sethi and police Inspector Nayak including municipality Executive Officer Jena were given retirement due to incompetence, dishonesty and financial irregularities, sources said.
Similarly, the executive officer of Karanjia NAC was found guilty of incompetence, negligence in duty, moral misconduct, illicit relations with women and violation of the Odisha Civil Service Code, 1955.
It is pertinent to mention, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has always given emphasis on keeping high morale and integrity in the field of public service.
Patnaik has always insisted on zero-tolerance against incompetent and corrupt officials. He has continuously given efforts to provide services to the people through a transparent, efficient and accountable administration.
Earlier, as many as five government officials including an engineer, a child development project officer (CDPO), an Anganwadi supervisor, a police Inspector and a revenue supervisor were ordered compulsory retirement on similar grounds February 8, 2022.
PNN