Major bureaucratic reshuffle in Modi government

In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the Centre on Wednesday night transferred at least two dozen IAS officers giving them new or additional responsibilities.

In less than a month of the Union Budget, Economic Affairs and Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg was shifted to the Power Ministry. Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary for Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will be the new Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs.

Garg will replace Ajay Kumar Bhalla as the Power Secretary, an official notification said. Bhalla has been appointed as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Ministry of Home Affairs and will take charge as Home Secretary once Rajiv Guaba retires on August 31.

The changes will take place with immediate effect.

Garg was the senior-most of the five secretaries in the finance ministry and played a key role in Budget making. He was also the representative from the government side in the former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan panel, which was overseeing the transfer of central bank’s excess reserves to the government. Garg tried to secure a larger pie for the government and it was due to his disagreement that the panel could not reach a final decision.

Garg’s departure has left the post of finance secretary vacant. It is expected that either Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey or Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar will be given that position. Both are the senior-most secretaries in the ministry and belong to the 1984 batch.

Among other major shake-ups, the Airports Authority of India Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra is slated to take over as Secretary of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, in the Commerce Ministry upon the superannuation of incumbent Ramesh Abhishek on July 31.

Anshu Prakash, the Additional Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will be the Secretary of the department. He would take charge July 31 after the superannuation of the incumbent Aruna Sundararajan.

R.S. Shukla has been appointed the Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs against the existing vacancy. Anuradha Mitra has been appointed as secretary (department of official languages) in the home ministry while Ravi Kapoor has been appointed textiles secretary.

Atul Chaturvedi will be secretary animal husbandry and dairy and P.D. Vaghela will take over as pharmaceutical secretary.

Eleven other officials have been upgraded as special secretaries.