NEW DELHI: In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the Central government on Saturday appointed as many as 29 joint secretaries, including some officers of Indian Administrative Services, across various government departments.
According to an official notification, officers from multiple Central services, including the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS), Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE), Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS), and Indian Revenue Service (IRS), have taken on these crucial joint secretary roles.
IDAS officers Praveen Kumar Rai and Rakesh Kumar Pandey, along with IRSEE officer Rajesh Gupta, have been appointed joint secretaries in the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to the order dated October 25.
Raj Kumar, a 1999-batch IA&AS officer, has been named Director (Finance) in the Central Reserve Police Force. Deepak Agarwal, a 2000-batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed managing director (joint secretary level) of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India.
IAS officers Chauhan Sarita Chand and P Bala Kiran have been assigned as joint secretaries in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, and the Department of Personnel and Training, respectively. IPS officer Bhavna Saxena has been appointed as CEO of the Central Adoption Resource Authority under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
IOFS officer Anjan Kumar Mishra will serve as secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Niraj Kumar, a Central Secretariat Service officer, has been appointed joint secretary in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region. IRS officer Kesang Yangzom Sherpa will serve as joint secretary in the Department of Commerce.
Premjit Lal was named executive director of the India Trade Promotion Organisation, while Balamurugan D has been made joint secretary in the corporate affairs ministry.
Similarly, Rama Shankar Sinha has been appointed joint secretary in the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and senior bureaucrats Rajat Agarwal and Ved Prakash Mishra as joint secretaries in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.