Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and senior IAS officer RS Gopalan has applied for voluntary retirement (VRS), citing personal and health reasons.
“I have submitted my papers for personal and health reasons. I want to focus on certain personal matters,” he said on Wednesday.
Gopalan is a 2001-batch IAS officer who has been serving as the state’s CEO since July 2024. He also holds additional charge as the Secretary of the Excise Department.
The officer’s superannuation was originally due in mid-2028, meaning he applied for voluntary retirement roughly a year and a half before his scheduled end of service.
Gopalan clarified that he was contemplating to retire from government service for some time now, but he delayed his application to ensure the smooth conclusion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Odisha.
Following the SIR process, Odisha’s final electoral roll of 3.16 voters was published on 21 September with the opposition BJD and Congress questioning the deletion of around 17 lakh names from the list.
The government is expected to take a decision on his VRS application in due course.
Tamil Nadu-born Gopalan is likely to stay in Odisha for around two years to allow his son to complete his schooling before deciding on his future course of action, Times of India quoted sources as saying.