Bhubaneswar: The state govt on Friday transferred Sujata R Karthikeyan to the finance department as special secretary and appointed Shalini Pandit, commissioner-cum-secretary in health and family welfare department, in her place as principal secretary of Mission Shakti department. Pandit will also hold the post of commissioner-cum-secretary in the Odia language, literature and culture department, a position which was additionally held by Karthikeyan.
The reshuffle was affected by the state govt a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered Karthikeyan’s transfer to a non-public dealing department.The ECI action apparently followed a complaint by BJP leaders that Karthikeyan, wife of bureaucrat-turned-politician V K Pandian, was allegedly influencing voters in Odisha. The BJP claimed Karthikeyan had been allegedly using govt machinery and manpower of Mission Shakti department and the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Programme (SVEEP) to influence voters for BJD’s electoral gains.TNN

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