After CBI summons, IAS officer Sethi shifted

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday transferred and appointed senior IAS officer Bishnupada Sethi as the officer on special duty in the Gen-eral Administration & Public Grievance department, after the CBI issued a summons to him in a bribery case.

Sethi, a 1995-batch IAS officer, was the Principal Secretary of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and ST&SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare departments. He also had additional charge as Principal Secretary of Odia Language, Literature & Culture de-partment.

“The post of the OSD, GA &PG department is declared equivalent in status and responsibility to the post of Principal Secretary provided in the IAS ca-dre of the State,” a notification said.

The government also appointed Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra, a 1997-batch IAS of-ficer, as the Principal Secretary of ST&SC Development, Minorities & Back-ward Classes Welfare department. Mishra returned to Odisha cadre after a Central deputation. Mishra has also been given the additional charge as Prin-cipal Secretary of the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Dis-abilities (SSEPD) and Odia Language, Literature and Culture departments.

Manoj Kumar Sahoo, a 2006-batch IAS officer, was appointed as Special Sec-retary to the Chief Minister.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has arrested three persons, including Chanchal Mukherjee, Group General Manager of the Central public sector unit Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, had issued a summons to Sethi on December 10 asking him to appear before the investigating agen-cy on December 11. However, Sethi has not yet appeared before the CBI, even as his three drivers have been questioned by the Central agency.

The CBI, in a letter to Sethi, on December 10 said, “It is learnt that you are acquainted with some important and relevant facts and circumstances of the instant CBI case, which are required to be ascertained from you.” Odisha gov-ernment sources said that on October 19, Sethi had written to Mukherjee re-garding assignments of projects for upgrading an ashram school to a high school and a high school to a higher secondary school in Boudh and Nayagarh districts. The two projects are worth Rs 37 crore.

The CBI has not made it clear whether these school upgradation projects have anything to do with the bribery case in which three persons were arrest-ed on December 7.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the Bridge and Roof Company (India) Limited, Bhubaneswar, on Tuesday appeared before the CBI for questioning, sources said.