Odisha govt stops pension of 6 officials for corruption

Odisha government on Monday stopped pension of six retired officers and asked two other officials to take voluntary retirement from service after they were convicted in different corruption cases.

The government in its order said that the service of two officials were no more required for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices, an official statement said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has issued such a direction as part of the state government's "Zero Tolerance" policy towards corruption, an official statement issued by the CMO said.

With the action against the six retired officials on Monday, the state government since August 2019 has acted against 74 officials on charges of corruption. This apart, 15 other officials have been served with compulsory retirement notices.

The officials whose pensions were stopped on Monday include Sudhir Kumar Brajendra Narayan, former chief engineer and managing director of Odisha Bridge Construction Corporation (OBCC) and Arun Charan Parida, ex-senior project manager of OBCC.

Pension of two former assistant engineers of the Rural Development department - Pramod Behera and Brajasundar Pattnaik - were also discontinued.

The other two officials whose pension were stopped were Khageswar Swain, former executive engineer, Cuttack Municipal Corporation and Bibekananda Mohanty, ex superintending engineer, Roads and Building Division of Sambalpur.

The government also issued compulsory retirement to two revenue inspectors - Iswari Prasad Purohit and Arun Kumar Purohit.