NEW DELHI: The Union government recently purged the private secretary and two additional private secretaries from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. All three were part of minister Bhupender Yadav’s team.
Mass transfers/sacking of a minister’s aides doesn’t happen frequently. Sources said that a similar action is afoot against the aides of three other ministers.
Three separate office orders issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on July 3 to effect the changes. The first order “terminated with immediate effect” the appointment of Ayush Saran, Additional Private Secretary to Yadav.
The second order repatriated Shailesh Kumar Singh, a Central Secretariat Service officer, who also served as Additional Private Secretary to Yadav, to his parent cadre at the Department of Personnel and Training, with what the order described as an “extended cooling off” period.
The third order sent Amar Singh, an Indian Revenue Service officer from the 2010 batch, who served as the minister’s Private Secretary, back to his parent cadre at the Department of Revenue “on administrative ground”.
The orders were copied to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet Secretariat, the Department of Personnel and Training and others.
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second innings from 2019 to 2024, around 102 officers and personal staff of various ministers were removed and transferred, sources said.