ODISHA: Officials announced on Wednesday that S C Mohapatra, the chief secretary of Odisha, had received a second extension to his term of employment for another six months. The Centre approved Mohapatra's extension on the advice of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Kuldeep Chaudhury, undersecretary in the ministry of personnel, public grievances, and pension, communicated with the Odisha government on August 23, 2022, through a letter. Mohapatra's first extension, which was set to expire on August 31, 2022, will now last until February 28, 2023, said the officials.

The fact that his contract was extended shows that the state government is not interested in any of the seven Odisha cadre officers holding the additional chief secretary rank, with the exception of Rajesh Verma and P K Jena, the special relief commissioner and president Droupadi Murmu's secretary, respectively.

Mohapatra was previously predicted to take over as chair of the empty Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission, which has been without a leader since January 16, 2022. Due to the state government's announcement of the panchayat election in February, he had received his first extension. On January 1, 2021, he took over as Chief Secretary from Asit Tripathy.

He is not the only IAS officer to receive a term extension as Odisha's chief secretary. The final chief secretary to receive three six-month extensions during Biju Patnaik's administration, from 1990 to 1995, was R N Das.

Mohapatra, a native of the Keonjhar district, is renowned for his skillful management of the caste violence that broke out in the Kandhamal district during the tenure of Biju Patnaik as chief minister.  During his tenure as a collector of Puri, he also managed the Lord Jagananth Nabakalebar festival in 1996. During a different event in 2015, he was again named the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration's main administrator.

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