JOIN USIn a first, an Ayurveda expert, who is not from the civil services, has been appointed the secretary of the Ayush ministry, while Ajay Kumar Jha will be the new expenditure secretary.
Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, the new secretary in the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopatby, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush), had joined the ministry on June 29 as special secretary on a contract basis, and in less than four months, was given a promotion.
According to the official order, Kotecha will be the secretary “for the remainder period of 03 years, reckoned from the date of his assumption of charge i.e. 29.06.2017 as Special Secretary, AYUSH”.
The appointment of the 54-year-old Kotecha, who is a former vice-chancellor of the Jamnagar-based Gujarat Ayurveda University, resulted in heartburns among bureaucrats.
His appointment is the first instance of a lateral entry into a secretary-level position from outside the civil service.
In the reshuffle effected on Wednesday night among top officials, the government also appointed Jha, a 1982-batch officer of Manipur cadre who is at present the environment secretary, as the next expenditure secretary in the Ministry of Finance when the incumbent Ashok Lavasa retires on October 31.