Odisha Govt Finalises Name Of Lokayukta Chairperson

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday finalised the name of the Lokayukta chairperson at a meeting of the seven-member search committee presided over by its chairperson and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Briefing mediapersons, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said the search committee unanimously finalised the name of the Lokayukta chairperson.

“The state government will announce the name after getting governor’s approval,” he added.

Padhi further said that the search committee will finalise the name of the five members of the Lokayukta Committee in its next meeting.

The chief secretary in a reply to the queries of the three-member division bench of the Supreme Court under the chairmanship of Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Monday had informed that the selection process of Lokayukta will be completed by March 31 and it will start functioning from April 8.

It may be recalled that Odisha was the first state in the country to pass the Lokayukta Bill in the State Assembly on February 14, 2014. However, the state government had not taken any step to make it functional. Taking strong exception to the non-implementation of its order, the Supreme Court on July 10 last year had directed the state government to complete the process for appointment of the Lokayukta by October 10.

Acting on the directive of the apex court, the state government had constituted a seven-member search committee on December 10.