As many as six senior IAS officers of the Odisha Cadre were promoted to Union Secretary and equivalent rank on Thursday.
The Union Government promoted 73 IAS officers of 1984 and 1985 batches to the Union Secretary Rank for the first time in the administrative history of India.
The six Odisha Cadre bureaucrats are Arun Kumar Panda, Ashok Dalwai and R Balakrishnan of the 1984 batch and Vipin Saxena, Upendra Prasad Singh and Surendra Nath Tripathy of the 1985 batch.
While Panda is presently posted as Additional Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Dalwai serving as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Balakrishnan as State Development Commissioner, Tripathy as MSME Commissioner, Saxena as Member, Board of Revenue, Odisha and Singh is presently posted as DG, National Mission for Clean Ganga.