LUCKNOW: In the first major bureaucratic reshuffle after assuming charge, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government transferred 20 principal secretary level IAS officers here on Wednesday.
However, there has been no word about the shifting of state chief secretary and the director general of police so far. Prominent among the officers who faced the axe of new dispensation and were put in waiting list include principal Secretary, information, Navneet Sehgal.
Sehgal, who remained an influential officer in the respective Mayawati and Akhilesh governments, was divested of all the charges of different departments he was holding, on Wednesday. Sehgal has been replaced by senior IAS officer Avnish Awasthi who will now take care of department of information as principal secretary, tourism as director general and chief executive officer, UP Industrial Development Authority (UPIDA). Sehgal was also serving as additional resident commissioner, New Delhi apart from heading the UP State Highway Authority.
Awasthi, a 1987 batch UP cadre IAS officer serving at the Centre on deputation, was relieved from the charges on CM Adityanath’s special request. He was serving as joint secretary in Central Social Justice and Empowerment since April, 2013.
Prior to this, Awasthi served as chief managing director of UP Power Corporation Limited from September 2005 to January 2009. He had also been secretary, tourism in the UP government, special secretary (information and technology) and special secretary (industries).
Awasthi had been district magistrate (DM) of Varanasi and Gorakhpur, the parliamentary constituencies of both the PM and CM. He was also DM of Lalitpur, Azamgarh, Badaun, Faizabad and Meerut.
While Additional chief secretary, minerals and mining Dr Gurdeep Singh was divested of his responsibilities and has been put in waiting list. Singh had come under the scanner due to his alleged involvement in the allotment of mining ‘pattas’ in the previous government and the CBI is currently investigating the case. Member of revenue board Raj Pratap Singh has been given charge of Dr Gurdeep
Singh's department besides additional charge as member of the Board.
While, Excise Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narain has been made Secretary Chief Minister, Principal Secretary, Infrastructure and Industrial development, NRI Department and Chairman Noida Authority, Rama Raman has also been put on the wait list and Meerut Divisional Commissioner Alok Sinha has been entrusted with the responsibility of Industrial development department. On the other, Investment Commissioner Amit Mohan Prasad has been given additional charge of CEO Noida and Greater Noida Authority. Deepak Agarwal, who held the charge, has been put on the wait list.
Commissioner, director of handloom and managing director of Kanpur Electricity Supply Company Ranveer Prasad has been given additional charge as the managing director of Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation.
Principal secretary, Child Development and Nutrition Dimple Verma has been put on the wait list while Anita Meshram, who was on the wait list, has been given Verma's department as secretary.
Commissioner, Commercial Tax and Secretary Technical Education Mukesh Kumar Meshram has been relieved of Technical education department while divisional commissioner, Lucknow, secretary Bhuvanesh Kumar has been relieved from his post and will now hold Professional Education and Skill Development department and Technical Education departments as secretary.
Managing director UP State Industrial Development Corporation, Minor Industries Corporation and commissioner and director Industries Amit Kumar Ghosh; vice chairman Ghaziabad Development Authority, secretary Culture Hariom, principal
secretary Estate Department Anita Singh have also been put on the wait list.
Amod Kumar and Pandhari Yadav, secretaries in Science and Technology and Housing and Urban Planning departments respectively, have been sent as the members of Revenue Board, Allahabad.