Odisha govt may offer outgoing DGP Abhay plum post after retirement.
Cuttack: With DGP Abhay set to retire on December 31, speculation is rife that the Odisha government may offer him a plum post after retirement. The Naveen Patnaik government is known to appoint bureaucrats with a clean track record to various key posts.
Retired IAS officer R Balakrishnan has been serving as the chief advisor in the chief minister’s office (CMO). In August 2019, retired chief secretary Aditya Padhi and DGP R P Sharma were appointed as the state election commissioner and member, Lokayukta, respectively. Both had taken voluntary retirements from service and had accepted the new offers.
In December last year, the government had appointed retired chief secretary Asit Tripathy as the chairperson of the Western Odisha Development Council. Tripathy was given additional charge and was the principal advisor to the CMO on regional development, tourism, agribusiness and industry.
Senior IPS officer Satyajit Mohanty, too, took voluntary retirement and joined as the chairman of the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) in February this year.
“Naveen and his office rely heavily on bureaucrats. It has been the trend and tradition of the government to appoint the CM’s favourite retired IAS and IPS officers to different posts after their retirement. Since Abhay has a clean and honest service record and is not mired in any controversy, the government may reward him with a job after he retires,” P K Mohapatra, a retired police officer said.
Abhay (1986-batch officer) was named as the DGP on November 20, 2019 and had assumed charge on December 9 that year.
Though he was scheduled to retire in June 2021, the government extended his service by six more months to meet the Supreme Court’s directive of ensuring a minimum tenure of two years of a DGP.
Abhay is the first Odisha DGP, who discharged his duty for two full years as stipulated by the apex court. The government on December 15 named special director of Intelligence Bureau, Sunil Bansal as Abhay’s successor.
