Bhubaneswar, May 18 (IANS): In a major reshuffle of IPS officers, the Odisha government on Thursday transferred 18 IPS officers including five Superintendents of Police.

As per a notification issued by the Home Department, IPS officer of 1989 batch, A.M. Prasad has been appointed as Special DGP, Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC) while 1990 batch IPS officer Sudhansu Sarangi has been posted as new Director General of Fire Services, Home Guard, and Civil Defence.

Similarly, R.K Sharma has been appointed as Additional DGP, Headquarters, Sanjay Kumar is the new Additional DG, Law & Order and Communication, Amitabh Thakur has been posted as the Transport Commissioner, Suresh Dev Datta Singh as Additional DG, Operations and Dayal Gangwar as ADG, Railways and Coastal Security.

The government has appointed Rajesh Kumar, a 1998 batch IPS officer, as ADG Modernisation, while Narasingha Bhol is the new Excise Commissioner, Asish Singh is the IG, central range, Cuttack and IG, State Forensic Science Laboratory.

Rajesh Pandit has been transferred as DIG, Fire Service and Home Guard, Akhilesvar Singh as DIG, Special Intelligence Wing and C.S. Meena is the new DIG, Koraput.

The five SPs who got new police districts are Mitrabhanu Mahapatra (Rourkela), Battula Gangadhar (Mayurbhanj), Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo (Sambalpur), Kusalkar Nitin Dagdu (Keonjhar), and Khilari Rishikesh (Bolangir).