Day after the VRS, Naveen Pattnaik’s closest aide VK Pandian gets Cabinet rank post in Odisha Govt
The Centre on Monday approved the voluntary retirement of 2000-batch Odisha cadre IAS officer V K Pandian, who has been serving as private secretary to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
A day after the Centre approved the voluntary retirement of “powerful” Odisha cadre IAS officer and Naveen Patnaik’s private secretary and closest aide V K Pandian, the state government appointed him as chairman of 5T (transformational initiatives) and Nabin Odisha with a Cabinet rank.
An order issued by the state general administration department said Pandian would work directly under the chief minister, which indicates that the erstwhile bureaucrat of the 2000 batch would continue to wield “extraordinary influence” in governance.
The 5T initiative, launched in Patnaik’s fifth and current term to overhaul the administrative apparatus, is believed to be Pandian’s idea. The Ts stand for ‘t’ransparency, ‘t’eamwork, ‘t’echnology and ‘t’ime, leading to ‘t’ransformation. Under it, the Patnaik government claims to have transformed over 4,000 high schools in Odisha, with refurbished classrooms, laboratories and playgrounds.
Though the state government order gives no clarity on Pandian’s role, sources said the former IAS officer would work with more authority since major programmes and projects of the state government are taken up under the 5T, which has its footprint in almost every Odisha government department now.
With the Odisha government having recently approved the Rs 4,000 crore ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha (Our Odisha, New Odisha)’ scheme under which every panchayat will get Rs 50 lakh to take up different projects, it will now be implemented under the direct supervision of Pandian.
