Bhubaneswar, Sept. 1: Senior Orissa cadre IAS officer of the 1972 batch, Subash Pani, today took over as the new chief secretary of Orissa following the superannuation of Pratip Kumar Mohanty yesterday.

Known in bureaucratic circles as an honest and tough administrator, Pani was chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s choice for the top administrative post in the state. He superseded nine of his seniors, including six who are on central deputation. The Centre has relieved Pani from the post of development commissioner, textile and handloom. He had earlier been the deputy election commissioner.

After taking charge today, Pani told reporters that he would seek the cooperation of all political parties and the common people. The senior IAS officer’s Ganjam roots also seemed to give him the edge over the other contenders. Though he was junior to a host of other officers who were in the running, the former deputy election commissioner was preferred to head the state bureaucracy as Patnaik’s own constituency — Hijili — is in the same district.

Though Patnaik’s adviser Pyari Mohan Mohapatra did not “whole-heartedly” endorse Pani’s candidature, the chief minister was keen to get a tough officer as Mohanty had turned out to be a non-performer.

Some of the officers who have been superseded are Sanjeeb Hota (1968), Madan Mohan Mohanty (1968), Santosh Nautiyal (1968), Prasanna Kumar Hota (1969), Ashok Mishra (1969), Meena Gupta (1971) and D.N. Padhi (1971).