In Saturday’s changes in the State’s babudom, the one who cut a sorry figure is Ashok Kumar Tripathy, notwithstanding his “overdrive” in organising the so-called national and international festivals of Odishan arts and culture when he was Secretary of Culture and Tourism till the reshuffle took place.
A 1981-batch IAS officer, Tripathy, was not only not elevated to the rank of Chief Secretary but also was shunted out as Director General of the Gopabandhu Academy of Administration, a post considered as virtually inconsequential.
This was despite the fact that Tripathy is third in seniority after newly-appointed Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra and Member of Board of Revenue PR Saha. The Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) kept his name in a sealed cover, thanks to a more-than-two-decade-old departmental case pending inquiry.
A retired Chief Secretary commented, “Senior officers should not be penalised for small administrative deficiencies that took place a long time back and departmental proceedings should be sorted out promptly.”
However, 1986-batch officer Sudarshan Pal Thakur, known as an able and effective administrator, has replaced Tripahty as the Principal Secretary of Tourism. Thakur during his tenure as Managing Director of Haryana Tourism Development Corporation had scaled up that State’s tourism activities to an international height. Santosh Sarangi has been posted as the Secretary of Department of Culture.