The Odisha government has appointed S K Lohani, the Panchayati Raj Department Director, as the nodal officer to assist the CBI for a detailed probe into alleged corruption in implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, MGNREGA. Panchayati Raj Secretary Pradip Kumar Jena said that S K Lohani will work as state-level nodal officer to assist the CBI's special investigation team.Chief Secretary B K Patnaik said the state government took this step after receiving a letter of request from the CBI which wanted logistic support for transparent investigation into the alleged rural job scam.