Senior IAS officer Manoj Ahuja takes over as new chief secretary of Odisha
After handing over the charge to Ahuja, Jena tweeted, “I relinquished charge of chief secretary at 3.30pm. I welcome Manoj Ahuja, one of my good friends from the 1990 batch.”
According to analysts, Ahuja has his task cut out as the new chief secretary of Odisha. As per political analysts, Ahuja will mainly face huge challenges like- removing bureaucratic bloats of the previous government, wiping out the bitter feeling between the Odia and non-Odia officials and fulfilling all the assurances promised by the newly-formed BJP government in its election manifesto.
As per political analysts, Ahuja who returned to Odisha from the central deputation recently, has a herculean task in hand to provide a new identity to the Odisha administration by improving its image.
“During the previous Naveen Patnaik government, the power was concentrated in the hands of a few non-Odia officers. V Karthikeyan Pandian, a non-Odia IAS officer, took control of the state administration and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). As a result, the entire administrative set up was completely disintegrated. Most of the bureaucrats had to yield to the pressures of Pandian. Now, Ahuja has to allow space to the secretaries of other departments to work with their own vision for better results,” said Gourang Charan Rout, a senior journalist.
Ahuja will retire in December this year. Before that he has to see that the new Mohan Charan Majhi government delivers on all fronts, including honouring the promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party during the poll campaigns, added Rout.