Gurugram: Under fire over his role as the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, IAS officer Pankaj Agarwal found himself among the 23 civil servants transferred across key departments with immediate effect.
The 2000 batch IAS officer, who was serving as Principal Secretary in agriculture & farmers and mines & geology departments, was made Principal Secretary in irrigation & water resources department, Advisor to Haryana Saraswati Heritage Board.
The reshuffle involves several senior officers at the additional chief secretary and principal secretary levels. Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi issued the transfer orders of IAS officers on Thursday.
The same day, a Congress deputation met Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh and alleged that Agarwal “behaved as an agent of the BJP” by deliberately and illegally rejecting Congress MLAs’ votes while accepting invalid votes cast in favour of the BJP and its Independent candidate.
The delegation urged the Governor to instruct the government to take appropriate disciplinary action against the IAS officer.
The Print has accessed a copy of the memorandum submitted to the Governor.
Dr Raja Sekhar Vundru (1990 batch), Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) in the food, civil supplies & consumer affairs department and transport department, was moved to transport and printing & stationery departments in the same post.
Similarly, G. Anupama, ACS, SEWA, has additional responsibility of the civil aviation department.
Apoorva Kumar Singh, who held charge of the Town & Country Planning and Urban Estates Department, was made ACS in higher education and PW (B&R) and architecture departments.
Both Anupam and Singh are from the 1991 batch.
Anurag Agarwal (1994), who was holding charge of the PW (B&R) and architecture department along with irrigation & water resources department, was made ACS in town & country planning and urban estates department.
Vijayendra Kumar (1995), who was posted in the cooperation department, was transferred as ACS, agriculture & farmers welfare, while also retaining charge of appointments in the personnel department and the sainik & ardhsainik welfare department.
Vijay Singh Dahiya (2001), principal secretary, printing & stationery and sports, was moved to school education, animal husbandry, in the same position.
Ashima Brar, Commissioner & Secretary in excise & taxation and finance departments, has been given the additional charge of energy department.
Phool Chand Meena, CEO of Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, was given additional responsibility of Faridabad Metropolitan Development Authority. Brar and Meena are from the 2004 batch.
Meena takes over from J. Ganesan (2006), who was made Commissioner & Secretary in food, civil supplies & consumer affairs department and citizen resources information department, along with other charges.
Saket Kumar (2005) was posted as Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, along with various other charges.
A. Mona Sreenivas (2006) was confirmed as Resident Commissioner at Haryana Bhawan, New Delhi, and also made CEO of Sonipat Metropolitan Development Authority. Another 2006 batch officer, Ashok Kumar Meena, was made Commissioner & Secretary, Urban Local Bodies, as well as Director General, Foreign Cooperation.
Others to be shifted include Mani Ram Sharma (2009), Mukul Kumar, Aditya Dahiya, Vijay Kumar Siddappa Bhavikatti (all three from 2011 batch), Sushil Sarwan (2012), and Vikram (2014).
Among the officers promoted from the Haryana Civil Services last year who were mentioned in the list were Varsha Khangwal, Manita Malik, and Vandana Disodia (all from 2018 batch).
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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