NEW DELHI: R Subrahmanyam, higher education secretary in the Union Human Resources Development Ministry has been reportedly transferred over continued protests by students at Jawaharlal Nehru University, that have not ended despite direct intervention by the government.
As per the order issued by the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet, Subrahmanyam, will now be secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Amit Khare, who had been given the charge of school education and literacy department after Reena Ray’s sudden transfer from the department in October, will now also hold the portfolio of the higher education department.
According to sources, it was at Subrahmanyam’s behest that the Ministry had called the representatives of the JNU students’ union — for talks earlier this week. JNUSU has been agitating since the end of October over revised Inter-Hall Administration manual that would result in a substantial hike in utility and service charges for hostellers.
“He was peeved that the JNU VC M Jagadesh Kumar had not been engaging with students at all and had therefore tried to mediate between the administration and the students,” a senior official in the Ministry said.
“However, despite several attempts, a negotiation agreement could not be reached, as while the secretary was in favour of most of the demands by the students, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank kept backing the VC,” the official added.
Subrahmanyam had also not been very comfortable with the Minister’s insistence on using Hindi for every communication in the departmental works, another source added.
Meanwhile, according to the notification of the department of personnel, 12 other secretaries were also reshuffled. Ravi Mittal, a 1986 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre will become the new secretary of information and broadcasting ministry in place of Amit Khare.
A change in personnel
V P Joy will be the new secretary (Coordination) at cabinet secretariat in place of Rajesh Bhushan who has been appointed as Secretary Department of rural development.