Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Friday has made ten senior IAS officers in charge of the 10 Aspirational Districts in the State.

The agriculture production commission, Pradipta Mohapatra will be in charge of Dhenkanal district, while agriculture principal secretary Sourav Garg will be in charge of Koraput. Principal secretary women and child development Anu Garg will be in charge of Rayagada while principal secretary home Sanjeev Chopra and principal secretary panchyati raj Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh will be in charge of Kandhmal and Kalahandi respectively. . Secretary higher education Saswat Mishra, health secretary Pramod Meherda and industries secretary Hemant Sharma have been named for Nuapada, Bolangir and Nawarangpur respectively. The food supplies and consumer welfare secretary VV Yadav will be in charge of Malkangiri while I & PR secretary SK Singh will be in charge of Gajapati .

The Central government has launched the Aspirational District programme with a view to focus on some selected most backward districts of the country. It has selected 115 districts, including 10 in Odisha, across the country for the purpose. The government of India is giving hand holding for the overall development of these districts with special attention of essential infrastructures, health, education, skill development.