New Delhi: With over a dozen incumbent secretaries, including those of health, aviation, power, and water, due to retire between June and September, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed their successors in a high–level bureaucratic reshuffle late Tuesday night.
Sudhansh Pant, a 1991–batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, will take over as the new Health Secretary after incumbent Rajesh Bhushan, a 1987-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, retires on 31 July. Pant, currently the Shipping Secretary, has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Health Ministry in the rank and pay of secretary to the Government of India.
T K Ramachandran, a 1981 batch Tamil Nadu cadre lAS, has been appointed the new Shipping Secretary in Pant’s place. Ramachandran is currently the chairman of the Chidambaranar Port Trust.
Chanchal Kumar, a 1992–batch Bihar cadre IAS, will take over as the Aviation Secretary after the incumbent Rajiv Bansal retires on 31 August. Kumar, who is currently the managing director of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, an agency under the Union road transport and highways ministry mandated with building roads and tunnels in difficult hilly terrains of the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir, will join as OSD in the Civil Aviation Ministry on 1 August and take charge as secretary after Bansal retires.
Pankaj Agrawal, a 1992–batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS, has been appointed OSD and will take over as power secretary after the incumbent, Alok Kumar, retires on 30 June. Agrawal is currently posted as additional secretary and Director General (Acquisition) in the defence ministry.
Debashree Mukherjee, a 1991–batch AGMUT (Assam, Goa, Mizoram, and all union territories), will take over as secretary of the Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation in the Jal Shakti Ministry after the incumbent Pankaj Kumar retires on 30 September. Mukherjee is currently a special secretary in the same ministry.
The government has also appointed Bharat Lal, a retired Indian Forest Service officer of the Gujarat cadre, as secretary general of the National Human Rights Commission for a period of one year in place of Devendra Kumar Singh, who retires on 30 June. Lal, considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is currently the Director General of the National Centre for Good Governance.
Among the other officers who will take charge as secretary after the incumbent officer retires is Nivedita Shukla Verma, a 1991–batch Uttar Pradesh cadre lAS. Verma will take over as secretary of the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, after the incumbent, Arun Baroka, retires on 31 August.
Rajat Kumar Mishra, a 1992–batch Rajasthan cadre IAS will take over as secretary of the Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, and 1992–batch UT cadre, IAS Subhas Chandra Lal Das will take over as secretary of the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.
Besides, Renu Gonela Pillay has been appointed secretary of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, a body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. He will take charge after the incumbent, Upma Srivastava, retires on 31 July.
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