Mishra shifted to environment; A K Jha new expenditure secy

New Delhi: In a major secretary level bureaucratic reshuffle, the government has shifted Health Secretary CK Mishra to 'less important' Environment & Forest Ministry, while senior IAS officer Injeti Srinivas has been given the task to look into the affairs of Corporate Affairs Ministry as its Secretary and senior IAS officer Ajay Kumar Jha has been moved to Finance Ministry as expenditure secretary.

In another important decision, the government has appointed an Ayurveda expert Vadiya Rajesh Kotecha as the secretary of the AYUSH department for a period of three years. Preeti Sudan, a 1983-batch officer from Andhra Pradesh, has been appointed the new health secretary. According to an official order, Jha, a 1982-batch officer of Manipur cadre, has been appointed as the Officer on Special Duty in the Department of Expenditure with immediate effect and will be taking over as the expenditure secretary from Ashok Lavasa who retires on October 31.

The three-year tenure of Kotecha, a former vice-chancellor of Gujarat Ayurveda University in Jamnagar, will also include his term as special secretary, it said.

The 1983 batch Bihar-cadre IAS officer Mishra would replace Jha. Coincidentally, Mishra has been shifted to the ministry which has two doctors at the helm of affairs --- Cabinet Minister Harsh Vardhan and his junior Mahesh Sharma. Vardhan and Mishra had also worked together in Health Ministry.

Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas, an IAS officer of 1983 batch from Odisha cadre, has been appointed corporate affairs secretary. It was Srinivas who had taken several initiatives to regulate exorbitant prices of medicines and medical equipment, including coronary stents, when he was the Chairman of National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Authority (NPPA).

Former UP chief secretary Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar will take Srinivas's place in the sports ministry. Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh Shankuntala Gamlin, a 1984-batch IAS officer of UT cadre, will be the new secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DIVYANGJAN).

Alok Shrivastava, a 1984-batch IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh, will be the new secretary of the Department of Justice. He was the special secretary in the shipping ministry. Gopal Krishna, a 1983-batch officer of the West Bengal cadre, has been appointed the secretary of the shipping ministry.

Ravi Kant, an IAS officer of 1984 batch from Bihar cadre, will be the new secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution, while KV Eapen, an IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya, who was at present in his cadre, will be the new secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms.

The government cancelled the appointment of VK Yadav, a 1980-batch officer from Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers, as additional secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and debarred him from appointment to any post in the Central Staffing Scheme, the order said.

Amita Prasad, who is at present additional secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, has been given this additional charge.