Ahmedabad

17 November 2018 22:28 IST

On Saturday evening, the government’s department of personnel and training (DoPT) issued notification of appointments for Secretary Revenue, Youth Affairs, Coal and Tourism.

The central government on Saturday appointed UIDAI CEO ABP Pandey as new Secretary Revenue in place of Hasmukh Adhia, who is set to superannuate end of this month.

The Modi administration removed Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash from the Delhi government and appointed him as Additional Secretary, Ministry of Telecommunications. Mr. Prakash was involved in a long spat with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and others in an alleged assault case.

On Saturday evening, the government’s department of personnel and training (DoPT) issued notification of appointments for Secretary Revenue, Youth Affairs, Coal and Tourism.

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In a crucial appointment, ABP Pandey, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), an agency of the Government of India responsible for implementing the AADHAAR scheme, has been appointed as new Secretary of Revenue and he will continue to hold additional charge of CEO of UIDAI and also Chairman of GST Network.

Mr. Pandey will replace Gujarat cadre IAS officer Hasmukh Adhia, a key aide and most trusted bureaucrat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Adhia, a 1981 batch IAS Officer from Gujarat cadre, is also designated as Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

Before the appointment orders were issued, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley posted on his Facebook that Mr. Adhia would retire the end of this month. Mr.. Jaitley added that Mr. Adhia had refused to take up any post retirement jobs as the government was keen to utilise his services.

Mr. Adhia had joined the Central government immediately a few months after the Modi government took over in 2014 and was first Secretary, Financial Services before he was moved to the highly important Revenue Department, which oversees the crucial agencies like CBDT, ED, DRI, and GST.

Interestingly, the government also appointed Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a 1984 batch IRS Officer, as Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED) for two years. Earlier, Mr Mishra was made interim ED last month.

In another top level appointment in the ministry of finance is that of Gujarat cadre IAS GC Murmu, who will be new Secretary of Expenditure and will take over from AN Jha who will superannuate in January 2019. Mr. Murmu, a 1985 batch IAS Officer of Gujarat cadre, is currently Special Secretary in the Revenue Department so now from January 2019, he will be full fledged Secretary in the Department of Expenditure.

As per the notification of DoPT, Upma Chawdhry, currently Director of Lal Bahadur Shashtri National Academy of Administration, will be new Secretary of Youth Affairs and Yogendra Tripathy will be new Secretary, Tourism.

Similarly, Sumanta Chaudhury will be Secretary of Ministry of Coal and Chhabilendra Raol will be Secretary, Fertilizers.

Shalini Prasad, Special Secretary in Panchayati Raj has been moved to the Ministry of Commerce as Member Secretary, Tariff Commission in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

A 1985 batch IAS Officer of Karnataka cadre, N. Sivasailam, has been moved from Department of Telecommunication to Department of Commerce as Special Secretary, Logistics.

Two senior retired bureaucrats, KD Tripathi and Rita Teotia were appointed as chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board and Chairperson of Food Safety and Standard Authority (FSSAI) respectively for three years each.

The former superannuated as Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, while Ms. Teotia retired as Commerce Secretary.