Odisha Govt Takes Action Against 9 Officers For Corrupt Practices

Bhubaneswar: As part of its zero tolerance towards corruption, the Odisha government has taken action against 9 officers for their alleged involvement in corruption cases.

While the government has issued compulsory retirement to 5 officers, two have been suspended and the pension of two officers have been held up temporarily. The officers who have faced the action include a superintending engineer, two executive engineers, two assistant engineers, one junior engineer, one OAS officer and one CDVO. With this, the government has taken action against 173 officers so far.

Former superintending engineer, rural development division-1, Malkangiri Asish Kumar Dash has been issued the order of compulsory retirement after Vigilance officials nabbed him while accepting a bribe of Rs 10.23 lakh from contractors. Later, the Vigilance had found him in possession of Rs 8.63 crore properties and Rs 1.4 crore in cash during raids.

Similarly, the Vigilance had caught former executive engineer, rural development division-1, Bhadrak Manas Ranjan Mohanty while accepting the bribe of Rs 30,000 and detected Rs 3.9 crore properties in his name. The Vigilance has also filed a case against executive engineer, drainage division at Gandarpur in Cuttack Manoj Kumar Behera and his wife in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.

Assistant engineer, irrigation division, Keonjhar Umsh Kumar Sasini and assistant engineer, R&B Section, Umerkot Bisuddhanand Behera have faced government action for DA cases pending against them.

Deputy collector of Balasore Sabita Sahu and former SEO of Balangir district Prabhasini Babu have been suspended for allegedly taking bribe.

The pension of former CDVO of Paralakhemundi Jaladhar Mallik and former junior engineer of rural works division-2 at Digapahandi in Ganjam district Trinath Sethi has been temporarily held up.