NEW DELHI: Principal Secretary and Commissioner of the Transport department of the city government, Ashish Kundra, has been transferred from the department and assigned the new responsibility of handling affairs at the Raj Niwas.
Kundra (AGMUT cadre, 1996 batch) has now been appointed as the full-time Principal Secretary of the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena. So far, he was holding the post as an additional charge.
Kundra will succeed Chandra Bhushan Kumar who was relieved from his position on January 16. He has been appointed the Additional Secretary and Mission Director for the Jal Jeevan Mission.
While no regular posting has been done to replace Kundra in the Transport department, for the time being, Finance Secretary Niharika Rai has been given the additional charge of Transport Commissioner.
Meanwhile, the IAS officer will continue to serve as a Principal Secretary of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department as an additional charge to his posting at Raj Niwas.
Kundra and AAP-led city government have been at odds on several occasions, with the most recent of these confrontations in July last year when Delhi witnessed large-scale floods. Transport minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had sought action against the IAS officer accusing him of deliberately ignoring the instructions of three ministers, urging him to deploy the National Disaster Relief Force and the Army Engineers Regiment to repair the WHO building regulator.