Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Monday announced the name of nine MLAs as the chairpersons of the District Planning Committee for nine districts.
While senior BJD leader and Balabhadra Majhi has been appointed as the chairperson of Kalahandi District Planning Committee, Sushant Singh will be the chairperson of Bargarh District Planning Committee, Prashant Muduli for Jagatsinghpur, Hrushikesh Nayak for Keonjhar, Ramesh Chandra Chau Patnaik for Ganjam, Manohar Randhari for Nabarangpur, Sashi Bhusan Behera for Khurda and Mahesh Sahu for Angul.
As per the new rules, chairpersons of the District Planning Committee will have the rank of minister of state.
The appointment of the MLAs as chairpersons of District Planning Committee has been made as per the amendment of the Odisha Office of Profit Act, 1961 which was approved by the State Cabinet on January 16.
As per the newly amended Act, the MLAs can be appointed as the chairperson and vice chairperson of the District Planning Board and chairperson of the State Planning Board. Besides, they can be appointed as the chairperson and vice chairperson of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC).
Under the newly amended Odisha Office of Profit Act, the MLAs appointed in the aforesaid posts will also continue as the members of the State Assembly.