TRANSFER OF CMD IS NOT ENOUGH; DETERMINE HOW CORRUPTION HAS CRIPPLED OMFED

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Navin Patnaik has risen to the occasion and shunted assertive IAS officer Hrushikesh Panda out of Orissa Milk-producers Federation (OMFED). He is placed under General Administration Department as an officer without specific duty.

This administrative action was necessitated after Panda’s audacity was discussed in these pages on December 13, 2008.

He had, in the matter of fixation of retail rate of milk, pooh-poohed the authority of the Chief Minister and his further continuance as Chief of OMFED would have put the government at a level to be laughed at.

But transfer of Panda is not enough. The government should institute an enquiry to determine as to what extent corruption has crippled the monopoly cooperative merchant of milk in the State.