Gujarat Confidential: Promoted as IAS

Additional Collector of Kutch and Deputy Controller, Civil Defence (Kutch), Dhaval Pandya, who has previously served as Deputy Municipal Commissioner of the Municipal Corporations of Surat and Vadodara, has been promoted to the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer rank as per a July 3 notification of the Department of Personnel and Training of the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Pandya, who holds a B Tech degree, had joined the Gujarat state civil services in August 2005 and was appointed as the Rajkot rural Mamlatdar in his first posting in 2008. Just ahead of the Operation Sindoor action undertaken by India against terror camps in Pakistan, followed by the attacks launched by the latter on border states in India, Pandya had played a key role in conducting the civil defence drills and preparedness. The Civil Defence Office of Kutch district had also held training sessions for differently abled persons, also releasing the first Gujarati Braille module for civil defence training.

New Responsibility

BJP media convener for Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar city, Hitesh Patel, popularly known as ‘Pochi’, has been appointed on the Zonal Railway Users Consultative Committee (ZRUCC) and the Telecom Advisory Committee (TAC). In the ZRUCC, he has been appointed under the Special Interest category. In a release on Saturday, Patel thanked the “state and central leadership of the BJP and Union Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw” for the appointments.