By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 1 Aug: Pushkar Singh Dhami Government has continued the reshuffle of the bureaucracy, even as 34 senior IAS, PCS and Secretariat Cadre officers were transferred late last night. This is the biggest and second major administrative reshuffle exercised by the Dhami Government within a fortnight. The latest reshuffle seems to be a well thought exercise and also appears to be part of the image building process initiated by the Government in view of the assembly elections approaching the state soon.
In addition to the transfers orders issued late last night, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today asked the officers posted at the Secretariat to focus on zero pendency of files. The latest reshuffle has seen the shifting of as many as 4 District Magistrates and readjustments with respect to the last reshuffle carried out some days ago.
Those affected by the reshuffle include Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Radha Raturi, who has been given additional charge as ACS, Higher Education, and Secretary Dilip Jawalkar, who has been given additional charge as Resident Commissioner, New Delhi, but relieved of his charge of Secretary, Religious Affairs and Culture. He continues as Secretary, Tourism. Similarly, Secretary, Disaster Management and Sports, SA Murugesanhas been relieved of Minor Irrigation, which has now been given to HC Semwal. This is the second time that Semwal has been affected by the reshuffle. Secretary, Health, Pankaj Pandey has been given charge as Secretary, Sugarcane, and also made MD of Uttarakhand Sugar Federation. This charge was held by Chandresh Yadav, who has been relieved but would continue to hold other responsibilities including that of Secretary, Aayush.
The biggest surprise comes in the form of Secretary (in-charge) Vinay Kumar Pandey, as he was relieved of his charge of Urban Development and also as Municipal Commissioner, Dehradun, and posted as District Magistrate, Haridwar, with additional charge as VC, Haridwar Development Authority.
Another major surprise is the handing back the charge of Mela Officer to Deepak Rawat, who had been relieved of his charge in the previous reshuffle, particularly in view of the fact that the next Kumbh or Ardh-Kumbh Mela in Haridwar is a good six years away. Transfer of DM, Almora, Nitin Singh Bhadauria and his wife DM, Chamoli, Swati Bhadauria were being expected by many political observers for some time now. Nitin Bhadauria has now been posted as Additional Secretary, Drinking Water, and Mission Director, Jal Jivan Mission, while Swati Bhadauria has been posted as Additional Secretary, Civil Aviation and Culture, and MD, GMVN. While Vandana Singh, who was Additional Secretary, has now been posted as DM, Almora, while Himanshu Khurana, who was posted as CDO, US Nagar, has now been posted as DM Chamoli.
Another noteworthy transfer is that of former DM, Dehradun, Ashish Srivastava, who has also been relieved of his charge as CEO, Smart City Project, and has been replaced by R Rajesh Kumar as the new DM of Dehradun. Abhishek Rohil,a who was in waiting for a posting, has now been appointed as Municipal Commissioner, Dehradun Nagar Nigam. Those affected by the transfers are Radha Raturi, Dilip Jawalkar, SA Murugesan, Pankaj Pandey, Harish Chandra Semwal, Chandresh Kumar Yadav, Bhupal Singh Manral, Deepak Rawat, Vijay Kumar Yadav, Dr R Rajesh Kumar, Vinay Shankar Pandey, Vinod Kumar Suman, C Ravi Shankar, Anand Swarup, Ashish Kumar Srivastava, Nitin Singh Bhadoria, Ashish Chauhan, Swati Bhadoria, Vandana Singh, Himanshu Khurana, Ashish Bhatgai, Savin Bansal, Ramvilas Yadav, Jharna Kamthan, Pratap Singh Shah, Arunendra Singh Chauhan, Abhishek Rohilla, Yogendra Yadav, Dev Krishna Tiwari, Pradeep Singh Rawat, Suresh Joshi, Atar Singh, Beri Ram and Sanjay Singh Tolia.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today instructed the bureaucrats of the districts from the secretariat to focus on zero pendency of files and work for good governance. He said that the solution of issues at the district level be worked out on the spot. Officers ought to take up all tasks with an action plan and resolve them within the stipulated time. Issues that could be resolved at the district level should not be sent to the government unnecessarily and instead be resolved at the district level itself.
