Vineel Krishna to join as Jairam Rameshs PS

Bhubaneswar: Malkangiri district magistrate R Vineel Krishna, who was abducted by Maoists in February and later released, is to be appointed as the personal Secretary to the environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

Vineel Krishna — the protagonist of Maoist abduction drama, impressed Jairam Ramesh so much that the environment minister has appointed him his personal secretary.

Ramesh’s offers this central posting for Krishna who spent eight days in Maoists` custody — may be he has been hugely impressed with Krishna’s close monitoring of tribal welfare projects in the Maoist-hit district.  

Earlier, just after the release of Krishna from the Maoists, the state ordered an inquiry into the circumstances that led to his abduction and transferred him to the SC/ST department as director.

The 2005 batch IAS officer is also a graduate in civil engineering from IIT Madras. He hails from Andhra Pradesh from where Ramesh is also elected as a Rajya Sabha MP. The collector was abducted from Chitrakonda where he had gone to monitor the projects.

Chief Secretary Bijay Patnaik said that neither Ramesh or Krishna has applied for transfer as yet.