22 bureaucrats shifted in major reshuffle by CM

Dehradun, 19 Apr: As is the case in Uttarakhand, bureaucratic reshuffles happen late in the evenings. It turned out to be a day of one of the biggest bureaucratic shake-up in the history of Uttarakhand when late tonight, as many as 22 bureaucrats were shifted.

To begin with, Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu was given additional charge as Chief Resident Commissioner of Government of Uttarakhand in Delhi. Previously this particular charge was held by former Chief Secretary Om Prakash, but some months ago he was relieved of this charge and no one had been given this charge in between.

Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, as was being expected, has been shifted to CMO as Additional Chief Secretary to CM in place of Anand Vardhan. In addition, she was relieved of her charge as ACS Higher Education, Power, Alternative Energy and Chairperson of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation. She has now been given charge of Home & Prisons and will continue to be Chairperson of UPCL, UJVNL and PTCUL.

Additional Chief Secretary Manisha Panwar has been relieved of her charge as Rural Development Commissioner and given charge of Chairperson of UTC and as Infrastructure Commissioner.

Additional Chief Secretary Anand Vardhan has been relieved of his charge as ACS to CM, Forests and also Infrastructure Commissioner and given charge of relatively lightweight Rural Development, Housing, Urban Development, Revenue and Chairperson of Uttarakhand Development Authority and as Agriculture Production Commissioner.

Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu was relieved of his charge as Principal Secretary Home and given charge of Principal Secretary Forests and Environment in place of Anand Vardhan.

Principal Secretary L Fanai was relieved of his charge of Sainik Kalyan and given charge of Commissioner Social Welfare. Additional Principal Secretary and senior IPS Officer Abhinav Kumar has been retained in the CMO as Special Principal Secretary to CM and given additional charge of Information, Sports & Youth Welfare. This was being speculated for sometime now.

R Meenakshi Sundaram is another bureaucrat who has been entrusted with some important portfolios by the CM. He was relieved of his relatively lightweight charge of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Mining and School Education and Sanskrit Education and shifted to CMO as Secretary to CM and given charge of Power, Alternative Energy, Labour and Finance. Shailesh Bagoli gets to remain Secretary to CM but has been relieved of Housing and Urban Development and given charge of Vigilance, Cabinet, Agriculture and Higher Education. Secretary Nitesh Jha has been relieved of charge of Technical Education and will retain the charge of Drinking Water and given additional charge of Rural Construction.

Radhika Jha has been given additional charge of Health and Medical Education and will retain the only charge she was having as Investment Commissioner New Delhi. Arvind Singh Hyanki has been relieved of his charge as Secretary Personnel and Vigilance and given charge of Transport. Sachin Kurve was relieved of charge of Rural Construction and given charge of Rural Development and Food & Civil Supplies. Sowjanya was given additional charge of Small and Medium Industry. BVRC Purushottam was relieved of charge of Resident Commissioner New Delhi and given additional charge of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Dairy Development and Cooperative. Ravinath Raman was relieved of charge of Excise, Revenue and Forests and given charge of School Education and Technical Education. Pankaj Pandey was relieved of charge of Health & Family Welfare as was being speculated for sometime now and given charge of Industries, Ayush Education and Industries Commissioner. Ranjeet Sinha was relieved of charge of Transport and given charge of Disaster Management and Externally Aided Projects. Hari Chand Semwal was given additional charge of Excise. Vijay Kumar Yadav was relieved of charge of Forests and Environment. Deependra Kumar Chaudhary was relieved of charge of Higher Education and Sports & Youth Welfare and given charge of Secretary (Incharge) Sainik Kalyan and Revenue.