Government undertakes reshuffle of senior bureaucrats

NEW DELHI: After the unceremonious repatriation of senior IAS officer Pravir Kumar to his state cadre Uttar Pradesh, the central government today gave additional charge to Anoop Kumar Srivastava as Secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat, for a period of three months.

Srivastava, a 1981 batch IAS officer from Assam-Meghalaya cadre, will be holding the new charge in addition to his duties of Secretary, Border Management, in the Union Home Ministry, according to the government order.

Kumar, an IAS officer of 1982 batch, was suddenly repatriated back to his home cadre on September 22 after having been appointed as Secretary of ISCS barely three weeks ago on August 28.

While the reason for his shifting was not known, it was speculated that one of his kin was a political activist working for a senior Congress leader.

In other orders issued today following retirement of bureuacrats, Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, posted as Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, was given additional charge of Chairman of National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention and Secretary (Security) following superannuation of Gurdial Singh Sandhu and D P Sinha, respectively.

Srivastava, according to the order, has been asked to look after both the posts for a period of three months or till appointment of regular incumbent.

Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Anup K Pujari was given additional charge for three months as Steel Secretary following retirement of Rakesh Singh.

Law Secretary P K Malhotra has been given additional charge of the Legislative Department for a period of three months or till a regular appointment is made following retirement of Sanjay Singh as Legislative Secretary.

Ameising Luikham, Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, has been given the additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.