Executive Engineer suspended for delay in arrival of CM’s chopper

Koraput/Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today placed under suspension Biranchi Mohanty, Executive Engineer, Works department, for gross dereliction of duty resulting in the delay in the arrival of chief minister’s helicopter at Kotpad in Koraput district.

Informing this to the media in the state capital this evening, Works secretary Nalinikanta Pradhan said Mohanty had provided wrong information to the pilot on longitude and latitude of Kotpad. As a result, the pilot could not get the exact location of Kotpad after leaving Jeypore.

The pilot, however, finally arrived at Kotpad after he was furnished with correct information, Pradhan added.

According to reports, the chief minister, during his one-day visit to Koraput district, had arrived in Jeypore this morning from Bhubaneswar in a helicopter.

After winding up his Jeypore visit, he left for Kotpad at 12.35 PM. While he was expected to arrive at Kotpad at 12.55 PM, there was no sign of the helicopter. Even the police and the district administration got panicked about the delay in the arrival of the chief minister.

However, the officials were relieved after the helicopter finally arrived at Kotpad at about 1.25 PM.

Later, talking to media persons, Koraput SP Charan Singh Meena said police will probe into the delay in the arrival of the helicopter.