Mihir Panda, a national award winner for outstanding efforts in popularising science and technology among children, was served with a show cause notice for laughing at his senior during a flood review meeting on Tuesday in the Balasore district of Odisha.

Panda protested against the order and sat on a dharna on Wednesday. However, he later withdrew it at the request of higher authorities.

Panda is now working as a junior engineer in the state government’s panchayati raj and drinking water department and is posted at Baliapal block of Balasore district. The region has been badly hit by the flood caused by the swollen Subarnarekha river.

Panda, 57, told The Telegraph: “We worked as field observers to review the relief distribution work. When our senior officials were having a review meeting on the details of the distribution of cooked food on Tuesday evening, I found some serious discrepancies in the figures. Perhaps, the record had some typo error. I could not control myself and burst into laughter.”

Giving more details about it, Panda said: “I had personally counted that packets containing cooked food were distributed to 50 people. But I was surprised when some officials said that cooked food packets were distributed to 850. I know it’s a typo error and that caused laughter.

“The senior officials took offence to it. Instead of taking it in a sportive spirit, they issued a notice that I was drunk. When the officials got to know that since my childhood, I have never tasted liquor, they withdrew the notice. But I was subjected to mental torture.”

Panda said he had signed on the register while receiving the show-cause notice. But later the officials took it from him.

Confirming the development, Baliapal block development officer Dipak Das said: “The show-cause notice was served as he failed to pay due respect to seniors and maintain the decorum. The JE was not present initially when the flood review meeting was going on. But later turned up at the chamber and met the officials. And there the incident took place.”

However, Panda refuted the charge and said that he was present at the meeting. “All should understand how officials play games,” he said.

The review meeting was conducted by Rabindra Sahu, chief executive officer of the Balasore Zilla Parishad. “The show-cause notice was issued. It’s an administrative matter and confidential,” Sahu told this newspaper.