NEW DELHI: In a sudden and rare move that shocked many in the government secretariat and bureaucracy, school education and literacy department secretary in the Union Human Resources Development Ministry, Rina Ray, was removed from her post on Tuesday.
To make matters worse, the 1984 batch union territory-cadre IAS officer was sent back to the parent cadre, which is extremely rare for a secretary rank official and is seen as a sign of extreme displeasure by the Centre. “The appointments committee of the cabinet has approved repatriation of Ray to her parent cadre with immediate effect,” the order by the department of personnel and training under the Prime Minister’s Office said without citing any reason.
The charge of the department has been given to Information and Broadcasting ministry secretary Amit Khare for the time being. Other officials in the ministry said that her sudden ouster from the ministry could hurt or delay several ongoing initiatives and schemes, including giving the final shape to the draft national education policy and the recently-launched Pradhan Mantri Innovative Learning Programme.
Ray had taken over as the secretary of the department in March this year following the retirement of Anil Swarup. Not even seven months old in the ministry, she was considered a headstrong and upright officer.
Ray did not answer calls made by this newspaper but several of her sub-ordinates, including some joint secretaries, described the development as “disheartening.”
“Her removal has come as a big shock and I feel it’s humiliating that she was not given a day after the announcement. She came to office, quietly collected her stuff, met the HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and left,” one of her sub-ordinates said.
Some former bureaucrats, this newspaper spoke with, said sending back a secretary to parent cadre is extremely unusual and there are few instances like this. “Former home secretary L C Goyal, former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg and former telecom secretary J S Dere moved out but they will be given lesser important assignments at the Centre itself,” said a retired secretary.