Top level bureaucracy reshuffled

The government on Saturday reshuffled top level bureaucracy with appointment of new Secretaries in ministries such as Power, Textiles, Mines, Fertilizer, Personal & Trainings and Tourism beside others. It also upgraded some of the post.

As approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister, 1988 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Uttar Pradesh, Alok Kumar will be new Power Secretary. He will replace Sanjeev Nandan Sahai, who is retiring on January 31. Kumar is presently in the cadre.

1985 batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre Upendra Prasad Singh will be new Textiles Secretary. At present he is Secretary in the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. He will be replaced by 1987 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, Pankaj Kumar. Kumar is presently serving as CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India.

1987 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre Rajesh Kr. Chaturvedi will move from Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals to Department of Fertilizers as Secretary. He will be replaced by 1985 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre Yogendra Tripathy who is presently serving as Tourism Secretary. Tripathy’s place will be taken over by 1988 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre Arvind Singh. Singh has been Chairman of the Airport Authority of India.

1986 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh Alok Tandon will move from cadre to join Mines Ministry as Secretary. His batchmate, IAS officer of Odisha cadre GV Venugopala Sarma has been asked to take charge as Chairman of National Authority, Chemical Weapons Convention. 1988 cadre IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, Bidyut Bihari Swain has been made Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. He was Special Secretary in the Commerce Ministry. His batchmate, Praveen Kumar Srivastava will join as Secretary (Coordination) in the Cabinet Secretariat.

The ACC has also approved in-situ upgradation of five IAS officers to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Government of India, as a measure personal to them. These officers include Praveen Garg, (MP:88), Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, (UK:88), Anjali Bhawara, (PB:88) Jatindra Nath Swain (TN:88) and Anil Kumar Jha, lAS (KN:88).