After four days of Odisha Assembly election result, senior IAS officer Sujata Karthikeyan (IAS:2000:OR), Special Secretary in the Finance department, proceeded on a six-month leave on Friday. She is wife of BJD leader VK Pandian
According to a notification issued by the General Administration department, she is granted ‘childcare’ leave for a period of six months from May 31 to November 26 as her daughter is appearing for the Class X examinations.
Earlier in May, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had ordered Sujata’s transfer from her role as Secretary in the Mission Shakti Department to a non-public dealing department. This decision came shortly after a delegation of BJP central leaders submitted a memorandum accusing her of acting as an agent for the ruling BJD in the state.
She married V K Pandian, a Tamil Nadu native and her batchmate from the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. Pandian has been the right hand of Patnaik since last year when he took voluntary retirement to join the government and was given the rank of a cabinet minister.
