As allegations of different government departments, including the chief minister’s office turning into rehabilitation centres for the retired bureaucrats owing loyalty and allegiance of outgoing CM’s trusted aide VK Pandian flying thick and fast, Odisha Home Department, aware of the change in regime, has sought information with regard to the appointment or re-engagement of retired officers in key departments.
The development of this nature comes in the wake of BJP putting an end to the 24-year-old BJD Government in Odisha by securing a majority with 78 seats in 147-member House.
The repercussion of change in government has already caused a ripple effect with three retired bureaucrats, who were posted in key positions reportedly for their loyalty to the outgoing government, resigning from their posts.
IAS officers R Balakrishnan and Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, who enjoyed unbridled power in important posts in the Naveen Patnaik government, resigned after the BJD lost the polls.
Manoj Kumar Mishra, Principal Secretary to Electronics and IT Department, was the next to tender resignation from his post after election results were out. Further laying bare the anxiety in the bureaucrat circles, Sujata Karthikeyan, senior IAS officer and wife of controversial Biju Janata Dal leader V K Pandian, has gone on six months leave.
Future is apparently tense for the officers in the outgoing Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). The CMO that comprised 14 officers, had turned into a rehabilitation centre for retired officers with six of them being retired government servants.
The Home Department in a letter to Odisha Director General of Police, Chief Resident Commissioner- Odisha Bhawan, New Delhi, Chief Electoral Officer, Director (Intelligence), Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Odisha State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation, Registrar (General) Orissa High Court, Director Odisha Judicial Academy besides others, have sought details of the appointment or re-engagement of retired officers in prescribed format.
The regime change has sent jitters to several bureaucrats who held on to key posts because of proximity to outgoing CM’s aide Pandian. Despite controversies shrouding over their style of functioning, the tainted bureaucrats were saved from the axe because of their right connections at the right place.
It remains to be seen whether the new BJP government promotes coterie and extends patronage to alleged corrupt officers. The bureaucrats and politicians who squandered funds from the State exchequer ought to be taken to task to instill confidence in people’s mind that the new regime is transparent and is intent on weeding out corruption. The new Government will also have to send the message loud and clear that it’s not bureaucracy-centric governance as it had been the case in the outgoing BJD Government. Symbolic coercive action on tainted bureaucrats, who crossed the parameters of probity and treaded on political lines, is on the cards and heads will roll in the coming days, according to analysts.