Odisha Chief Minister Shri. Naveen Patnaik has made changes to his Council of Ministers by removing Higher Education Minister Rohit Pujari from the ministry. According to sources in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Mr. Patnaik recommended to Governor Ganeshi Lal that Mr. Pujari be excluded from the ministry and assigned the department to Food and Supplies Minister Atanu S. Nayak. Mr. Pujari, who represents the Rairakhol Assembly segment, was inducted into the ministry in June of the previous year.
The decision to drop Mr. Pujari came after a review of the performance of all departments from May 22 to June 2. The review revealed that the higher education department had the poorest performance among all the departments. As a result, the Chief Minister decided to take action and remove Mr. Pujari from the ministry.
In addition to the ministerial change, the Secretary of the Higher Education Department, Bishnupada Sethi, was transferred and appointed as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the General Administration department. Aravind Agrawal, who was serving as the Director of the Social Welfare, Women & Child Development Department, has been appointed as the new secretary of the Higher Education Department, replacing Sethi.
Alongside these changes, there were additional appointments and terminations in other departments. Vishal Kumar Dev, the Principal Secretary of the Finance Department, has been given additional responsibilities as the head of the Odisha Hydro Power Corporation Ltd., while Bishnupada Sethi’s appointment as Chairman of the same corporation will be terminated once Dev assumes his new role. Furthermore, Aravind Agrawal has been appointed as the Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Higher Education Department, in addition to his existing responsibilities as the Director of the Social Welfare, Women & Child Development Department, Managing Director of Mahila Vikas Samabaya Nigam, and Director of Rural Development.
The decision to remove Rohit Pujari from the ministry and make these changes was based on the poor performance of the higher education department. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made the recommendation to Governor Ganeshi Lal, who subsequently approved the decision. The department has now been entrusted to Atanu Sabysachi Nayak, the food and supplies minister. The recent review conducted by the Chief Minister revealed that the higher education department’s performance was the weakest among all the departments under review.
Prasanta Patnaik