NEW DELHI: Weeks after the formation of the BJP-led government in the national capital, the administration has witnessed a major bureaucratic reshuffle. In a late-evening decision on Thursday, the services department of the Delhi government issued multiple orders transferring 78 senior officials across various departments.
The most striking change has taken place at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), where nearly 30 senior administrators – including officers from the Delhi, Andaman, and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) and Grade-I officials from the Delhi Secretariat Service (DSS) – have been reassigned.
They will replace 18 existing officers, while an additional 12 new appointments have been made, signaling a dramatic overhaul at the highest office of the government.
This bureaucratic churn has come at a critical juncture, just weeks before the new government is set to present its first finance budget. The reshuffle is being seen as a strategic decision by the new government to cement administrative control and bring in trusted hands to hold key positions.
Among the departments witnessing the highest number of transfers are General Administration, Excise, Home, Health, and Vigilance.
Notably, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also holds the Services portfolio. The CMO will now have three newly-appointed Deputy Secretaries, all DANICS officers.
Lalit Kant Gautam, who was serving as an Assistant Commissioner in the Food & Supplies Department, has been posted as Deputy Secretary at the CMO. Similarly, Gautam Arora and Pawan Kumar, both key officials in the Home Department, and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital’s administration department have been transferred to the CMO at the same designation.
Officials transferred to the CMO have been instructed to assume their new roles immediately, without waiting for formal relieving orders from their current departments. However, those already serving at the CMO have not yet been officially relieved, as per the order.