Bhubaneswar: The state government has nominated senior IAS officers to review the progress of 16 districts in Odisha under the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) and Aspirational Blocks Programme (ABP) of the NITI Aayog.

The state government nominated 16 secretary-level officers to review the progress of the districts under the twin programmes.

The Planning and Convergence Department of the state government issued a notification in this regard today. The senior IAS officers have been nominated as the Secretary-in-Charge of the 16 districts.

Senior IAS officers Sushil Kumar Lohani, Bishnupada Sethi, Chithra Arumugum, Usha Padhee and Vir Vikram Yadav have been nominated to review the progress of Aspirational districts of Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Koraput, Kandhamal and Balangir respectively.

Similarly, senior bureaucrats Vishal Kumar Dev, Shubha Sarma, Bhaskar Jyoti Sharma, Shalini Pandit and Sudhansu Mohan Samal have been nominated to review of progress of remaining five Aspirational districts—Nuapada, Gajapati, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Dhenkanal.

As per the notification, senior IAS officers Hemant Sharma, Saswat Mishra, Sanjay Kumar Singh, Aswathy S, Aravind Agrawal and Thirumala Naik have been given the responsibilities to review the progress of Keonjhar, Bargarh, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Sambalpur and Nayagarh respectively.

These six districts have been included under the Aspirational Blocks Programmes of the NITI Aayog.