Do lapses in Odisha IAS officer’s service record prove his political leanings?

Bhubaneswar: Under fire for meddling in politics, Odisha CM’s private secretary V Karthikeyan Pandian’s service record discipline as a civil servant has come under scanner.

While service rules make it mandatory for an IAS to undergo two-week training after 10-16 years of service, the 2000-batch IAS officer seems to have never attended any training session. Pandian has been posted as the private secretary of the Chief Minister since May 2, 2011.

Even, Pandian reportedly missed the chance to get his name in the empanelment list for central deputation by not attending the mid-career training which had to be completed by June 2017.

Sahadeb Sahu, former chief secretary said, "Norms say one officer can be posted at a place for a minimum three years and he/she cannot stay at one place for long period."

"Apart from character report, usually a 360 degree assessment of an officer is done for the empanelment. Otherwise, getting included in the empanelled list is very difficult," retired bureaucrat Arabind Behera said.

When OTV tried to get Pandian’s response on the matter at the State Secretariat yesterday, he avoided the media and his security personnel also prevented camera persons from taking video footage. Today as well, efforts to contact him for his comments proved futile.