NEW DELHI: Babus who served as officers on special duty (OSD) or as private secretaries (PS) to UPA ministers can’t be appointed for the same posts by ministers in the Narendra Modi government. And the appointments of all ministerial staff will face close scrutiny.Even the recently appointed private secretary to Home Minister Rajnath Singh , who’s a political heavyweight in BJP , has been shifted out. Alok Singh, an IPS officer of the 1995 batch from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, was PS to the home minister.He was earlier PS to Salman Khurshid , the external affairs minister in the United Progressive Alliance administration. The directive comes right from the top.ET has learnt from senior officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity that the decision has been taken by the Prime Minister’s Office. And the impact is already being felt across the government. On June 10, the government ordered shifting out of as many as 42 officers, including those from the IAS and IPS, who served as either private secretaries or OSD to UPA ministers.ET has learnt that at least nine more officers, who served with UPA ministers and were reappointed in similar posts by the ministers in the new National Democratic Alliance regime, are on their way out and their appointment orders have been put on hold.“Staffers in the offices of Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptullah, and the senior and junior ministers of aviation Ashok Gajapati Raju and GM Siddheshwara are also being looked at closely due to their long association with ministers in the previous regime,” said a senior official in the Department of Personnel and Training.An IPS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, Abhinav Kumar, who was earlier PS to Shashi Tharoor, was recently appointed by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju as his PS. Other officers whose appointment orders are under question and may be rescinded include 1993 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer Uday Kumavat, who had served with UPA’s minister of state for agriculture Tariq Anwar.Kumavat was appointed in the telecom ministry in a similar position in the new government. Another staffer at HRD Minister Smriti Irani’s office, Vinita Shrivastava, could also be shifted out, said the official quoted earlier. Shrivastava was earlier the OSD to former steel minister Beni Prasad Verma.Senior people in the administration who spoke to ET said these decisions were not based on “vengeance” but on the principle that “new talent” must be injected into new government.These people also told ET the red-flagging of appointments of ministers’ personal staff is an “across-the-board” affair, with both high-end appointments and lower staff levels being scrutinised to an “unprecedented degree”.The scrutiny is detailed. Officers are being appraised on parameters such as “performance, political neutrality and non-allegiance, and dedication to work”. On June 13, the government issued orders appointing new personal secretaries to Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Micro Industries Minister Kalraj Mishra and Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman.