Bhubaneswar, April 8: The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Monday its approval of the appointment of two Odisha-cadre IPS officers as Superintendents of Police (SPs) for Berhampur and Khurda. 

Sarthak Sarangi has been given the green light for the position of SP in Berhampur, while Awinash Kumar will assume the role of SP in Khurda, replacing Saravana Vivek Kumar and Jugal Kishore Banoth, respectively.

This decision follows the ECI's directive on April 2, which involved the transfer of six IPS officers, including SPs from Berhampur, Khurda, Rourkela, and Angul, along with the Cuttack Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) in the central range, to non-election related roles with immediate effect. Transfers of Cuttack Collector Vineet Bharadwaj and Jagatsinghpur Collector Parul Patwari were also included in the directive.

Additionally, the commission approved the appointments of Brijesh Kumar Rai as Rourkela SP, Prakash R as Cuttack DCP, and Umashankar Dash as Angul SP. Sanjay Kumar Kaushal replaced Ashish Singh as IG (Central). Arindam Dakua and Anupam Saha were appointed as collectors of Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur, respectively.

The ECI's decision came shortly after allegations made by BJP's MP candidate from Berhampur, Pradeep Panigrahy, who claimed that an IPS officer with the rank of Inspector General was allegedly intimidating politicians in Ganjam district, urging them not to leave the BJD party.

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