Bureaucratic rejig: Ajay Mittal named I&B secretary

Senior IAS officers Ashok Lavasa and Ajay Mittal were on Tuesday appointed Expenditure and Information and Broadcasting secretaries, respectively, in a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle.

In all, 14 new secretaries have been appointed in various Central government departments.

Lavasa, currently Environment Secretary, will take over from Ratan P Watal, who superannuates on April 30, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

Ajay Narayan Jha, Special Secretary in the Department of Expenditure, will be Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in place of Lavasa, it said.

Mittal, at present working in his cadre state Himachal Pradesh, will be new Information and Broadcasting Secretary. He will take over from incumbent Sunil Arora, who retires this month-end.

Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Snehlata Shrivastava has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Justice. She is currently Special Secretary in the Department of Financial Services, the DoPT said.

The portfolios of Anuj Kumar Bishnoi and Vijay Shankar Pandey have been swapped. Bishnoi will now be Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, in place of Pandey, who has been named as new Secretary Department of Fertilisers.

There has been reshuffle in other departments too.

Devendra Chaudhary has been appointed Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.

Chaudhary, a 1981-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, is at present Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare. He was involved in civil services day celebrations on April 20-21 here.

Chirravuri Viswanath, Secretary for the Department of Consumer Affairs, will be new Secretary DARPG and for Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare in place of Chaudhary.

Hem Kumar Pandey has been appointed Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, a post held by Viswanath. Pandey is currently Secretary, Department of Official Language under Home Ministry.