Ayurveda Expert Appointed in a Major Bureaucratic Reshuffle

Photo used for representational purposes only. 

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons) 

In a first, the government on Wednesday appointed an ayurveda expert the secretary of the AYUSH department.

In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the government also made senior IAS officer Ajay Kumar Jha the new expenditure secretary.

According to an official order, Jha, a 1982-batch officer of Manipur cadre, has been appointed the Officer on Special Duty in the Department of Expenditure with immediate effect.

He will be taking over as the expenditure secretary from Ashok Lavasa, who retires on 31 October.

In a departure from the convention of appointing bureaucrats to the position of secretary, Vadiya Rajesh Kotecha, who was appointed the special secretary in the AYUSH ministry in June 2016, was made its secretary for a period of three years, the order said.

The three-year tenure of Kotecha, a former vice-chancellor of Gujarat Ayurveda University in Jamnagar, will also include his term as special secretary, it said.

A Bihar-cadre IAS officer of the 1983 batch, CK Mishra, who was the health and AYUSH secretary, will be the new environment secretary, in place of Jha.

Preeti Sudan, a 1983-batch officer from Andhra Pradesh, has been appointed the new health secretary.

Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh Shankuntala Gamlin, a 1984-batch IAS officer of UT cadre, will be the new secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DIVYANGJAN).

Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas, an IAS officer of 1983 batch from Odhisa cadre, has been appointed secretary, corporate affairs. Former UP chief secretary Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar will take Srinivas's place in the sports ministry.

Alok Shrivastava, a 1984-batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh, will be the new secretary of the Department of Justice. He was special secretary in the shipping ministry.

Gopal Krishna, a 1983-batch officer of the West Bengal cadre, has been appointed secretary of the shipping ministry.

Ravi Kant, an IAS officer of 1984 batch from Bihar cadre, will be the new secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.

K V Eapen, an IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya, who was at present in his cadre, will be the new secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms.

The government cancelled the appointment of V K Yadav, a 1980-batch officer from Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers, as additional secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and debarred him from appointment to any post in the Central Staffing Scheme, the order said.

Amita Prasad, who is at present additional secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, has been given this additional charge.

Ram Moban Mishra, a 1987-batch IAS officer from Assam and Meghalaya, will be the new additional secretary and Development Commissioner in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

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