Considering the steep rising COVID-19 cases during the second wave of the pandemic, the General Administration and Public Grievance Department of Government of Odisha appointed 21 senior IAS officers as Covid observers of different districts, on April 15. The 21 IAS officers will carry the task of observing the pandemic dynamics in addition to their core duties.

As per the order, Anu Garg, Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department and N Thirumala Naik, Labour Commissioner will be in charge of Bhubaneswar which has emerged as a hot spot. While Nikunja Bihari Dhal, Secretary, Energy Department will look after Jharsuguda and Sundargarh districts.

Satyabrat Sahu, Principal Secretary, MSME Department and Benudhar Behera, Special Secretary, Rural Development Department, will be observing Balangir, Bargarh and Nuapada districts. These districts have recently seen a sudden surge in the COVID cases.

Balasore and Bhadrak districts have been assigned to Madhusudan Padhi, Principal Secretary, Commerce and Transport Department for observation, whereas, Surendra Kumar, Principal Secretary, Steel and Mines Department and Srikant Prusty, Special Secretary, Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts Department have been assigned Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar districts, respectively.

Ganjam and Gajapati districts have been given to G Mathivathanam, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development. While Hemant Sharma, Principal Secretary, Industries Department and Suresh Chandra Dalai, Special Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department will be taking care of Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts.

Bishnupada Sethi, Revenue Secretary and Gopabandhu Satpathy, Managing Director, Odisha Cooperative Bank, would look after Angul, Deogarh and Dhenkanal districts. Chitra Arumugam, Secretary, Labour Department has been given the charge Sambalpur and Sonepur districts, whereas, Swaswat Mishra, Secretary, Higher Education Department and Bishnu Prasad Mishra, Secretary, Odisha Sub-Ordinate Staff Selection Commission, gets Kalahandi, Kandhamal and Boudh districts.

VV Yadav, Secretary, Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Department and Rashi Khan, Additional Secretary, School and Mass Education Department will be observing Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Nabarangpur districts. Revenue Divisional Commissioners Temjenwapang Ao and Anil Kumar Samal have been assigned Gajapati besides, Cuttack, Nayagarh, Puri and Khurda (rural) districts respectively. Susanta Mohapatra, Director of Estates will also look after Cuttack city and Cuttack (rural).

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