14 corrupt Odisha officials face music 

Four senior officers were dismissed from the job

 The Naveen Patnaik Government on Tuesday handed severe departmental punishment to 14 officials dismissing four of them from the service as part of its continued action against corrupt employees.

While many of them were asked to accept compulsory retirement, the government fully withheld pensionary benefit permanently.

After conviction in a bribery case, Swarnanava Das, a former Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of Lamtaput block in Koraput district, and Damodar Mahalik, an officer of Odisha Administrative Service who was a former Block Development Officer of Kantamal Block in Boudh district, were dismissed from the job. Manoj Kumar Behura, a former junior engineer, and Dilip Kumar Digital, Ex-Forest Range Officer, Boudh Forest Division, were also dismissed for their conviction in vigilance courts.

Officers who would not be entitled to pensionary benefits included Panchanan Barik, OAS, former tahsildar, Prakash Chandra Patra, former Inspector of Supplies, Prasanna Kumar Pani, former assistant engineer, Dusmanta Kumar Nayak, a suspended junior engineer and Somanath Panda, a suspended senior manager (Tender), Odisha Bridge and Construction Corporation Limited,

Naba Kishore Samal, a superintending engineer, Malaya Kishore Nayak, Odisha Police Service, and Jayant Kumar Panda were asked to get retired from service immediately.

Earlier, action had been taken against 173 government officials. Now, a total of 187 officials has been handed out punishment of different degrees for their involvement in corruption.