VK Pandian has taken voluntary retirement as Naveen Patnaik’s personal secretary
New Delhi:
A day after his request for a voluntary retirement got here via, VK Pandian, former personal secretary to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, has been given a cupboard minister rank within the state authorities.
An order issued by Odisha’s Common Administration and Public Grievance division stated the IAS officer has been appointed as chairman of the state authorities’s 5T (Transformation Initiatives) and Nabin Odisha scheme. The order mentions that he’ll maintain a cupboard minister rank.
Earlier, sources from the ruling BJD had stated Mr Pandian could be part of the social gathering and is prone to be given an even bigger function forward of subsequent 12 months’s Meeting polls, information company PTI reported.
A 2000-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, Mr Pandian began his profession because the sub-collector of Dharmagarh in Kalahandi in 2002. He was appointed the collector of Mayurbhanj in 2005, after which in 2007, he was made the collector of Ganjam. It was throughout his posting in Ganjam that he turned a trusted officer of the Chief Minister. Mr Pandian joined the Chief Minister’s Workplace in 2011, and was later promoted as his Mr Patnaik’s personal secretary.
Mr Pandian’s rise as essentially the most trusted aide of the BJD chief has drawn fireplace from the the social gathering’s rivals, who’ve accused him of misusing a bureacrat’s place.
Quickly after his request for voluntary retirement got here via, Congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka stated he wouldn’t be stunned if Mr Pandian took cost as chief minister of Odisha earlier than the following polls.
“…such is the ability construction in Odisha, nobody has clue what’s occurring however everybody is aware of who’s controlling. VRS accepted in 3 days throughout holidays – Tremendous Quick,” he stated in a publish on X.
Senior Congress MLA SS Saluja stated Mr Pandian ought to have stop public service earlier. “We have no idea whether or not he’ll be part of politics or return again to his personal state. Nonetheless, if he joins the BJD, then it will likely be useful for the opposition, the Congress is specific,” Mr Saluja informed information company PTI.
BJP chief whip Mohan Majhi stated, “Now, he’ll be capable of do politics brazenly as an alternative of with the masks of a bureaucrat on. He is not going to be accepted by the folks of Odisha.”
