Bhubaneswar: The Odisha chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, Monday stopped the pension of former managing director and engineer-in-chief of Odisha Bridge Construction Corporation (OBCC) Sudhir Kumar Bajendra Narayan as part of his drive against corruption.

Patnaik also stopped the pension of five others and ordered for compulsory retirement of two other officers.

The persons whose pension has been stopped permanently are former rural development executive engineer of Puri Braja Sundar Patnaik, former executive engineer and senior project director of OBCC Arun Parida, former rural development assistant engineer of Kamakshya Nagar Pramod Behera, former executive engineer of Cuttack Municipal Corporation Khageswar Swain and former executive engineer of Sambalpur R & D Bibekananda Mohanty .

Those who were given CRS are RI of Kalahandi district’s Koksara tehsil office Iswari Prasad Purohit and RI of Sonepur district’s Birmaharajpur tehsil office Arun Purohit.

The chief minister’s action has come following vigilance action against the eight government officials.

Since August 2019, the chief minister has dismissed 15 officers from service and stopped pension of 74 retired officers as part of his principles of ‘zero tolerance ‘ towards corruption.