Centre goes in for major reshuffle of top bureaucrats

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday announced a major reshuffle of top level bureaucrats with new Secretaries being appointed to head the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Tourism and the Department of Chemicals and Petro-Chemicals.

Secretary, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Chanchal Kumar, a Bihar cadre IAS officer of the 1992 batch, has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, swapping places with the incumbent, his batchmate Sanjay Jaju.

Sanjay Lohiya, an IAS officer of the 1994 batch, who was holding charge as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Mines, has been appointed Special Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, by temporarily upgrading a vacant post of Joint Secretary in the department. He will replace Nagaraju Maddirala, a 1993 cadre IAS officer, who superannuates on May 31, 2026.

Bhuvnesh Kumar, a UP cadre IAS officer of the 1995 batch, who was holding charge as Chief Executive Officer, Unique Identification Authority of India, has been appointed Secretary, Ministry of Tourism in place of Srivatsa Krishna, a Kerala cadre IAS officer of the 1994 batch. Krishna has been shifted to the post of Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs, in place of Chandra Sekhar Kumar. Chandra Sekhar Kumar, an Orissa cadre IAS officer of the 1992 batch, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, National Rainfed Area Authority, in the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in the rank and pay of Secretary at the Centre.

Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petro-Chemicals, Nivedita Shukla Verma, a UP cadre IAS officer of the 1991 batch, has been replaced by Tejveer Singh, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of the 1994 batch. She will now hold charge as Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, with additional charge of the post of Secretary, Department of Pensions and Pensioners Welfare in the Ministry of Personnel.

Narendra Bhooshan, also a UP cadre IAS officer of the 1992 batch, has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development.

Rohit Kansal, an IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre’s 1995 batch and presently Additional Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development, to replace Shailesh Kumar Singh, who retires on March 31.

Bharat Harbanslal Khera, a 1996 batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, and presently Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, in the rank and pay of Secretary. He will replace Subhas Chandra Lal Das, who superannuates on April 30.

Abhishek Singh, a 1995 batch IAS officer of the Nagaland cadre, and presently Director General, National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, has been appointed as Director General, National Testing Agency, Ministry of Education, in the rank and pay of Secretary by temporarily upgrading the post.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has also approved in-situ upgradation of the following officers to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Government by temporarily upgrading the posts held by them:

These are Sanjay Rastogi, a 1991 batch Odisha cadre IAS officer, currently the Director General, National Archives of India, Ministry of Culture and Sajjan Singh Yadav, a 1996 cadre AGMUT IAS officer, and the Additional Secretary, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, as Special Secretary in the same post.

IANS