Odisha: Lokayukta Relief For Former OMFED Chief In ‘Poly Bag Corruption’ Complaint

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Lokayukta has given a clean cheat to IAS officer and former MD of Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation (OMFED) Bishnu Pada Sethi in the alleged corruption in the purchase of poly bags by the milk procurement company.

The 1995-batch IAS officer is currently posted as Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management with the additional charge of principal secretary, Odia Language, Literature and Culture.

The anti-corruption watchdog observed that there was no merit in the complaint filed by RTI activist Pradeep Pradhan, who it said suppressed facts about Sethi being cleared by an inquiry committee formed by the government in the case.

Madhu Sudan Padhi, another IAS officer who succeeded Sethi as OMFED MD, had reported about large-scale corruption between August 2015 and June 2016 in the procurement of poly pouch from Indian Dairy Machinery Company through a redistribution agent. The milk procurement company had to bear a loss of Rs 6.35 crore because of the decision taken by Sethi, which benefitted the redistribution agent, Padhi had alleged in his letter to the then Chief Secretary A P Padhi.

The petitioner had stated that no action had been taken on Padhi’s letter till now, while the committee in 2017 had found that the allegations were false and OMFED suffered no financial loss.

“We are also of the view that the findings of the inquiry report were well-founded and unassailable,” the Lokayukta said while disposing of the complaint.

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