Ajay Bhalla appointed OSD MHA; set to become Union Home Secy

Power Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla is all set to become the new Home Secretary with the government appointing him Officer on Special Duty in the high-profile ministry on Wednesday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi cleared Bhalla’s appointment as OSD in the ministry withimmediate effect.

   

The 1984-batch Assam Meghalaya cadre IAS officer may succeedincumbent Rajiv Gauba, who will demit office on August 31, on hissuperannuation.

Even though the order did not mention that Bhalla will bethe next home secretary, according to convention, an OSD is appointed forsmooth transition of the charge from the incumbent, officials said.

Bhalla will have a fixed two-year tenure till August 2021 ifappointed as the union home secretary.

In a major reshuffle in the senior bureaucracy effected bythe ACC, 1985-batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer Atanu Chakraborty was appointedthe new Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs in Finance Ministry tosucceed S C Garg, 1983-batch IAS officer from Rajasthan cadre, who has beensent to Power Ministry in the same capacity, a government order said.

Member (Finance), Digital Communications Commission,Anuradha Mitra was appointed Secretary, Department of Official Language.

Besides these officers, eight 1986-batch IAS officers weremade secretaries in various departments.

Anil Kumar Khachi from Himachal Pradesh cadre will be thenew Secretary, Disinvestment to succeed Chakraborty. Anshu Prakash, from UTcadre, will be the Secretary, Department of Telecommunication while hisbatch-mate from West Bengal cadre RS Shukla will be the Secretary,Parliamentary Affairs, the order said.

Ravi Capoor, from Assam Meghalaya cadre, was appointed  Secretary, Textiles. Atul Chaturvedi fromsame cadre will be the Secretary, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, the ordersaid.

Gujarat cadre officer P D Vaghela will be the Secretary inDepartment of Pharmaceuticals, it said.

G V Venugopala Sarma, IAS from Odisha cadre, was appointedMember Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority in the rank and pay ofSecretary by temporarily upgrading the post.

His batch mate from Gujarat, Guruprasad Mohapatra wasappointed Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.Mohapatra is the Chairman, Airports Authority of India in the Civil AviationMinistry.

The ACC also cleared in-situ upgrade of 12 IAS officers of1986 batch to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary,as a measure personal to them, by temporarily upgrading the post held by them,the order said.

Those 1986-batch IAS promoted as special secretaries includeAnil Kumar Jain in the Environment Ministry, Subash Chandra in the Departmentof Defence, Sanjeev Nandan Sahai in the Power Ministry, Shambhu Singh in theRoads and Transport Ministry, Ravi Mittal in the Department of FinancialServices, Pramod Kumar Das in the Department of Expenditure and Sanjeeva Kumarin the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it said.

IAS from MP cadre S P Singh Parihar, Chairman, CentralPollution Control Board was given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said.

Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Jammu Kashmir cadre IAS officer, wasappointed Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, it said.

Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi from Bihar cadre will be newDirector General in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the rank andpay of Secretary.

Satbir Bedi, IAS from UT cadre serving as Chairperson,National Council for Teacher Education was given the rank and pay of Secretary.Umesh Sinha, UP cadre IAS, currently serving asDeputy Election Commissioner has been given the rank and pay of Secretary, itsaid. 

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