Centre shuffles two dozen secys

After deliberating for nearly a month, the Manmohan Singh government effected a large-scale bureaucratic reshuffle today, involving 24 secre...

After deliberating for nearly a month, the Manmohan Singh government effected a large-scale bureaucratic reshuffle today, involving 24 secretary-level officials. Home Secretary Anil Baijal was replaced by Disinvestment Secretary Dhirendra Singh and sent to Urban Development, Defence Secretary Ajay Prasad was shifted to Civil Aviation and succeeded by Transport Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh and Education Secretary SC Tripathi was made the Petroleum Secretary.

It is learnt that the transfer orders were finalised late on Monday night, in consultation with 10, Janpath, and the key officers were sounded out for transfer this afternoon. The role of 10, Janpath was central, as some bureaucrats had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, identifying the so-called saffronised ones.

Apparently, a retired top bureaucrat whetted these charges and gave a report to Sonia. While there were some officials who were against the removal of the Home and Defence Secretaries, it seems that the Congress chief8217;s suggestion prevailed.

Even though the government has been talking about giving a fixed tenure of two years to secretaries of key departments like Home, Defence, Finance and External Affairs, the reshuffle did not indicate the resolve.

Baijal and Prasad, who were both perceived to be close to the NDA government, have been replaced by officers senior to them. Dhirendra Singh will retire in nine months and Ajai Vikram Singh has one year to go.

Baijal has been sent to Urban Development, as he was earlier the Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority. He has also worked with Ghulam Nabi Azad when he was the Civil Aviation minister during the Narasimha Rao regime. Dhirendra Singh has a clean image, who has spent a number of years in the Defence Ministry.

Ajai Vikram Singh was associated with a high-power committee on higher defence management during Jaswant Singh8217;s tenure as the Defence Minister. He headed the Defence Acquisition Department and has a close rapport with the armed forces. Ajay Prasad, who was having problems with the armed forces, particularly the Air HQ, has been chosen as the Civil Aviation Secretary though he has not worked in the Ministry before.

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Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee, who was overlooked for the Cabinet Secretary8217;s job, has been compensated with a three-month extension and a 8216;8216;full additional charge8217;8217; as the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.

According to the government order, B.S. Baswan has been made Education Secretary; Reva Nayar heads the Women and Child Development department; Dhanendra Kumar is Secretary of Road Transport and Highways; A.K. Rastogi is Secretary Border Management in Home Ministry; A.N. Tewari is the new Secretary, Personnel and Grievances; Neena Ranjan is Secretary, Culture; Sarita Prasad is Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; Chitra Chopra is Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation Secretary; Kasturi G. Menon has been sent as Advisor, Planning Commission; P.M.A. Hakeem is Secretary, Animal Husbandry, A.K. Jha heads the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion; Laxmi Chand is Secretary, Ministry of Development of N-E Region; Anupam Dasgupta heads the Official Languages department, R. Poornalingam is Secretary of the Disinvestment Department; Lalit Joshi has been upgraded to the rank of secretary in the National Highways Authority of India and Priyadarshi Thakur goes as Chairman of the Tariff Commission.