In the first major bureaucratic reshuffle by the new United Progressive Alliance fovernment, Home Secretary Anil Baijal and Defence Secretary Ajay Prasad, appointed by the previous National Democratic Alliance regime, were on Monday night shifted to other ministries while Disinvestment Secretary Dhirendra Singh was made the new Home Secretary.
Under the decision cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet today, Baijal was appointed the new Urban Development Secretary, while Prasad was moved as Civil Aviation Secretary. Dhirendra Singh is an IAS officer of the 1968 batch from Karnataka.
Ajay Vikram Singh, Secretary Road Transport and Highways, will be the new Defence Secretary.
The Foreign Office will also have a new spokesman in Dalip Sinha, Deputy High Commissioner in Dhaka, who will replace Navtej Sarna. Sarna moves to South Block as Joint Secretary, Disarmament.
The reshuffle comes more than a month after the change of guard at the Centre with the NDA appointed Kamal Pande already having made way for B K Chaturvedi, who became the new Cabinet Secretary.
R Purnalingam, Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, has been brought to the Disinvestment Department as its Secretary.
S A Tripathi, Additional Secretary in the HRD Ministry, will be the new Petroleum Secretary to take the place of B K Chaturvedi.
Deepak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary who has been given three months' extension in service, has now been given the additional charge of Textiles.
Arun Bhatnagar, who is retiring as Personnnel Secretary tomorrow, is being given the charge of Secretary of the National Advisory Council to oversee the implementation of the UPA's Common Minimum Programme.
B S Baswan, Secretary, Social Justice, has been posted as Secretary, Department of Secondary and Higher Education, in place of S C Tripathi.
Reva Nayyar, Secretary, Ministry of Development, North Eastern Region, has been appointed Secretary, Department of Women and Child while Culture Secretary Dhanendra Kumar has been shifted to Road Transport Ministry.
A K Rastogi, on "compulsory wait" with Inter-State Council Secretariat, has been moved to Home Ministry as
Secretary, Border Management and A N Tiwari, Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Secretary, will now be Secretary, Personnel and Public Grievances Ministry.
Neena Ranjan, Secretary, Department of Official Language, has been posted as Culture Secretary, while Sarita Prasad, Special Secretary, Social Justice Ministry has been elevated as Secretary in the same Ministry.
Chitra Chopra, Secretary, National Commission on Backward Classes has been given the post of Secretary, Department of Urban Development.
Kasturi G Menon, presently Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, has been made Adviser, Planning Commission in the rank and pay of Secretary.
P M A Hakeem, presently Chairman and Managing Director, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation in Department of Commerce, has been moved as Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Hakeem comes in place of S Regunathan, a 1968 batch IAS officer who has been reverted to his parent cadre.
A K Jha, currently Chairman and Managing Director, India Trade Promotion Organisation has been appointed Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in place of Lakshmi Chand who has been posted as Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-East Region.
Anupam Bhatnagar, Additional Secretary, Department of Urban Development has been elevated as Secretary, Department of Official Language.
Lalith K Joshi, presently Member (Administration), National Highways Authority, has been renotified in his present post in the rank and pay of Secretary by temporarily upgrading the post.
Priyadarshi Thakur, presently Additional Secretary, External Affairs Ministry, has been appointed Chairman, Tariff Commission, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, in the rank and pay of Secretary.