PATNA: A technocrat-turned bureaucrat was appointed as the new chief secretary by the NDA government in Bihar on Sunday.
The 1985-batch IAS officer Arun Kumar Singh is the new Chief Secretary (CS) to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Seven other IAS officers were also reshuffled with new responsibilities.
Singh is a native of Bihar’s West Champaran district and will retire this year on August 31 after having served on various posts including that of the development commissioner, and the director general in Gramin Vikash Sansthan among others.
He had also served in the Water Resource department as principal secretary in addition to serving in the road construction, and the science and technology department as secretary.
Bihar’s new chief secretary has an educational background in mechanical engineering.
Singh will replace Deepak Kumar, who has also been made principal secretary to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with effect from March 1.
Deepak Kumar, who has been serving as CS after getting the first extension of his service for six months retired from the post on Sunday.
Kumar is said to be one of the trusted officers of Nitish Kumar and that’s why a post was created specifically for him as principal secretary to CM.
Sources from the corridor of power said that the names of many other senior IAS officers were also in the race for becoming the chief secretary but the government approved Arun Kumar Singh for the role.
Meanwhile, additional chief secretary and one of the closest officers to the CM, Amir Subhani, also got appointed as development commissioner.
Subhani, the new development commissioner, is a 1987-batch IAS officer and a native of Bihar’s Siwan district.
He will superannuate from services on April 3 in 2024. Other IAS officers reshuffled are Chaitanya Prasad, who has been appointed to the post of Principal Secretary of Home Department.
According to the notification issued by the General Administration Department, Ravi Manubhai Parmar has been given the charge of Principal Secretary in Small Water Resources Department and Santosh Kumar Mall as Secretary of Department of Information Technology.
Other IAS officers namely Prem Singh Meena has been appointed as Secretary of Finance Department, Divesh Sehra as the secretary of SC, ST welfare department and Sanjeev Hans -1997-batch IAS, has been posted as Secretary in additional charge of the Department of Water Resources besides working as secretary to power department.