Seven officials in Odisha shown the door on charges of corruption

Bhubaneswar: Continuing its drive against corrupt and inept officials, the Odisha government on Wednesday ordered compulsory retirement of five officials.

The state government also sacked two officials and permanently stopped the pensions of another two on charges of corruption, a comminique from the Chief Minister’s Office said.

The state government has taken action against a superintending engineer, two executive engineers, two assistant engineers, a retired junior engineer, an OAS officer, a retired chief district veterinary officer and a social education organiser.

According to sources, the then superintending engineer of Malkangiri Rural Development department (Division-1) Ashis Kumar Das has been handed out compulsory retirement after conviction in a corruption case where he was charged for accepting a bribe of Rs 10.23 lakh from contractors. He had been caught with the bribe money by the Vigilance sleuths. Assets worth Rs 8.63 crore and Rs 1.4 crore in cash were unearthed from his possession during simultaneous raids by the Vigilance officials, sources said.

Similarly, former Bhadrak Rural Development department (Division 1) executive engineer Manas Ranjan Mohanty has been given compulsory retirement after conviction in the graft case where he was accused of accepting Rs 30,000 as bribe from a contractor. The Vigilance sleuths had unearthed assets worth Rs 3.90 crore from Mohanty disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The state government has ordered compulsory retirement for Cuttack Gandarpur Drainage Division executive engineer Manoj Kumar Behera. The Vigilance officials had traced assets worth Rs 4.26 crore from Behera and his wife disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Assistant engineer of Baitarani irrigation division at Salapada in Keonjhar, Umesh Kumar Shashini, has been given compulsory retirement for amassing assets worth Rs 1.42 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Similarly, the state government has ordered compulsory retirement for Umerkote R&B Section assistant engineer Bishuddhanand Behera on charges of amassing assets worth Rs 70.93 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income, sources said.

The state government has permanently stopped the pensions of former Paralakhemundi CDVO Jaladhar Mallick for accepting Rs 10,000 as bribe during his service period.

OAS officer Sabita Sahu has been sacked from her service on charges of accepting Rs 10,000 as bribe. Sahu was working as the Deputy Collector of Balasore, sources said.

Besides, the state government has terminated the service of former Bolangir social education organiser Prabhasini Babu for accepting a bribe of Rs 3,000 from a widow for granting the latter Rs 20,000 as social assistance.

The pensions of former junior engineer of Ganjam Rural Works Division 2, Trinath Sethi, have been permanently stopped for accepting Rs 9, 000 as bribe during his service period.

The state government has so far taken action against at least 173 corrupt and inept officials, sources said.