Bhubaneswar/UNI: A day after V K Pandian, Secretary to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, took Voluntary Retirement from Service (VRS), he was appointed the Chairman 5T (Transformational Initiative) and Nabin Odisha with the rank of a Cabinet Minister on Tuesday.

An office order issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance Department said his newly assigned post is in the rank of Cabinet Minister.

Pandian will work directly under the Chief Minister, the order issued by Additional Chief Secretary of GA & PG department Surendra Kumar said.

Pandian applied for VRS on October 20 and his request was accepted by the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions department of Personnel and training on October 23 with the waiver of the notice period as recommended by the state government.

Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, earier earned wrath of the Opposition that had accused him of misusing his post in the government. 

The former bureaucrat, who joined the CMO in 2011, later assumed the post of the Chief Minister's secretary.