Odisha Lokayukta has asked its director of inquiry to find whether revenue secretary Bishnupada Sethi misutilised his power to reimburse the medical bills of his father and wife from Odisha State Cooperative Bank, where he was management-in-charge between 2013 and 2015.
Lokayukta Ajit Singh ordered that the director of inquiry, Lokayukta, probes in 60 days if Sethi, an IAS officer of 1995 batch, was legally entitled to reimburse the medical bills of his father and wife’s treatments from the state cooperative bank, while holding its additional charge.
The Lokayukta also ordered that it be inquired if Sethi was entitled for receiving an honorarium out of the Bank’s net profit as its management-in-charge, in addition to his substantive post as the commissioner-cum-secretary, department of cooperation. The Lokayukta’s directives came while responding to a petition by RTI activist Srikant Pakal.
“We are of the view that there is a serious dispute regarding entitlement of reimbursement of the medical bills and the drawing of the honorarium by the officer,” the Lokayukta said in its order.
Petitioner Pakal had alleged that the IAS officer had drawn lakhs of rupees from Orissa State Co-operative Bank (OSCB), Bhubaneswar during his tenure as the management-in-charge of OSCB in shape of incentives / honorarium / reimbursement of medical bill/orderly allowances and book grant etc. from the period February 2013 and till July 2015. He alleged that Sethi spent Rs 9.46 lakh towards the hospitalisation of his wife and father from the funds of Odisha State Cooperative Bank, in violation of the existing norms during his stint as secretary of the cooperation department.
As Sethi did not work as a regular employee of the bank, he was not entitled to receive the honorarium from the profit of the bank as the same is only meant for the employees of the bank, the petitioner had contended.
