The Odisha government has announced the appointment of chairpersons for district planning committees (DPCs) in all 30 districts. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has approved the selection of four ministers and 26 BJP MLAs to lead these committees.

Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari will chair the DPC for Deogarh district, while Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan will oversee the panel in Gajapati. School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond has been assigned to Rayagada, and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Krushna Chandra Patra will lead the committee in Sambalpur.

The remaining DPCs will be chaired by ruling party MLAs, including notable figures such as Ashok Mohanty (Angul), Laxman Bag (Balangir), Padmalochan Panda (Balasore), Ashwini Kumar Sarangi (Bargarh), Purna Chandra Sethy (Ganjam), Amarendra Das (Jagatsinghpur), Tankadhar Tripathy (Jharsuguda), Fakir Mohan Naik (Keonjhar), Jay Dholkia (Nuapada), and Prasanta Kumar Jagadev (Khurda).

This decision follows criticism from the Opposition regarding the government’s failure to implement grassroots planning mechanisms, as they raised concerns during the budget session about the lack of constitution for DPCs and the delays in decentralised planning processes.