Odisha govt goof-up: Dead officer assigned to handle crowds at PM Modi's visit

In what seems to be a slip-up by the Odisha state government, a deceased Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) officer was assigned to manage crowds during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on September 17.

However, after the error was highlighted and criticised on social media, the government quickly replaced the dead official's name with another officer. 

What happened?

According to reports, an order was issued on September 13 by the Odisha state government stating that the general administration and public grievance department had assiged 50 senior OAS officers to the women and child development department for crowd management during the Prime Minister's visit.

PM Modi is all set to visit Odisha on September 17, to launch Subhadra Yojana, a cash incentive scheme for women at Janata Maidan.

The order had also mentioned that Prabodha Kumar Rout will be one of the officers assigned to manage the crowds on that day. The position he held was listed as an administrative officer at the Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC). The major glitch here was that the officer had passed away in July of the previous year.

However, his last posting had been at OCAC.

After social media slammed the government over its error, the officer's name was replaced with Subrat Kumar Jena, a land officer at the industrial infrastructure development corporation (IDCO). And, chief secretary Manoj Ahuja confirmed that it had been changed, said news reports. It is not clear how the order was made public.

BJD reacts

Reacting to the government's order, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) social media cell head Swayam Prakash Mohapatra took a dig at the state government.

“A very strange situation, a strange regime is going on. An officer, who has been dead a year ago has been given the charge of crowd control during the Prime Minister’s visit,” Mohapatra wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).