Bhubaneswar: Just ahead of elections to Lok Sabha and Odisha Vidhan Sabha, the Election Commission of India (ECI) today ordered transfer of two IAS and six IPS officers out to non-election related posts with immediate effect.
Issuing a letter to Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena, ECI Secretary Rakesh Kumar said, “I am directed to state that the Commission has decided that the following officers be transferred out to a non-election related post with immediate effect,” read the letter.
The EC has directed for transfer of Cuttack District Magistrate (DM) and District Election Officer (DEO) Vineet Bhardwaj, Jagatsinghpur DM & DEO Parul Patawari.
Angul SP Sudhansu Sekhar Mishra, Berhampur SP Saravana Vivek M, Khurda SP Jugal Kishore Banoth, Rourkela SP Mitrabhanu Mahapatra and Sundergarh SP Kanwar Vishal Singh have also been transferred. The EC has also directed to transfer IG Central Ashish Kumar Singh to non-election post.
The Chief Secretary has also been asked to provide a panel of three eligible officers each for these posts by 5 PM.
Notably, senior BJP leader and Berhampur MP candidate Pradeep Panigrahy recently alleged that a senior IG rank officer was threatening his party workers.
