Pawan Kumar Sharma named Dy Election Commissioner, V Lalithalakshmi Joint Secretary in VP Secretariat

The Centre appointed 35 civil servants to strategic positions across ministries, signaling a significant administrative shake-up.

New Delhi: Senior IAS officers Pawan Kumar Sharma and V Lalithalakshmi were on Saturday appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner and Joint Secretary in the Vice President's Secretariat, respectively, according to an official order.

Sharma is a 1999-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre and Lalithalakshmi is a 2008-batch officer of the West Bengal cadre.

Sharma, Additional Secretary in the Defence Ministry, has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to the government of India, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

The Centre also carried out a major Joint Secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle, with 35 civil servants appointed to various government organisations.

Aman Sharma, an Indian Postal Service officer of the 2002 batch, has been named as Joint Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, the ministry order said.

Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Tarun Kumar Pithode has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Arvind Khare will be Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs; Amit Singla will be Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Ekroop Caur will be Joint Secretary, Department of Expenditure; and Shalini Pandit will be Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, the order said.

Senior Indian Information Service officer Nidhi Pandey has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy; Ashim Kumar Modi as Joint Secretary and Financial Adviser (FA), Ministry of Coal; Meenakshi Jolly as Additional DG (JS level), National Museum under the Ministry of Culture; and Anvita Sinha as Senior Directing Staff, National Defence College.

Aishvarya Singh will be Joint Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Krishna Kant Pathak has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Fertilisers; Arvind Khare as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs; Madhup Vyas as Executive Director, National Institute of Disaster Management; and Chetan P S Rao as Member (Finance), Delhi Development Authority.

Garima Singh (Central Secretariat Service) has been named Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Suresh Kumar as Joint Secretary, Department of Justice; Ajay Gupta as Joint Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs; Phool Chand Prasad as Joint Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs; and Archana Mittal will be Adviser (JS level), NITI Aayog, according to the order.

Maharashtra cadre IAS officer Nidhi Pandey has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Official Language and Dinesh Kumar Verma will be Secretary (JS level), Public Enterprises Selection Board.

Sushil Kumar Patel and Chhavi Bhardwaj will be joint secretaries, Department of Personnel and Training. Bhardwaj will hold additional charge of CEO, Karmayogi Bharat, the order said.

Satyaprakash T L has been appointed as Joint Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals; Shreeshail Malge as Joint Secretary and FA, Department of Posts; Chetna Nand Singh as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways; Nishant Verma as Joint Secretary, Anusandhan National Research Foundation; and Harikishore S as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism.

Indian Police Service officer Rajamurugan Muthukalathi has been named as Managing Director, Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs; Shilpa Sachin Shinde as CMD (JS level), Water and Power Consultancy Services; and Sumant Narain as Joint Secretary, Department of Water Resources.

Ajeet Kumar has been appointed as JointSecretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development; Radhika Jha as JS, Ministry of Women and Child Development; and Mansoor Hasan Khan as JointSecretary and FA, Department of Youth Affairs.