CHENNAI: In yet another transfer of a top-level bureaucrat ahead of the Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India on Saturday ordered the transfer of Tamil Nadu Home Secretary Dheeraj Kumar. Senior IAS officer K Manivasan has been appointed as the new Home Secretary.
The order comes close on the heels of a major bureaucratic reshuffle carried out earlier this week. The poll panel had then ordered the transfer of Chief Secretary N Muruganandam and DGP (Armed Police, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption) S Davidson Devasirvatham.
A few days prior to that, it transferred DGP (Head of Police) (in-charge) G Venkataraman and posted Sandeep Rai Rathore in his place. On Friday, Commissioner of Greater Chennai Police A Arun was replaced with Abhin Dinesh Modak by the ECI.
The transfers of the entire top brass, and the Chief Secretary N Muruganandam in particular, have been criticised by the ruling DMK, which called the ECI’s transfer of the Chief Secretary a move “openly in bias of the BJP”.