Nitish removes Bihar's health secy; fields Amrit to lead Covid-19 war

New Delhi: If the buzz in the power corridors of Bihar is to be believed, the state's health secretary Uday Singh Kumawat has been removed from the post as the senior career bureaucrat was not listening to the state's health minister Mangal Pandey over the containment strategies to control the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

Health Department's principal secretary Uday Singh Kumawat has been replaced by Pratyaya Amrit, who is also the principal secretary of Energy and Disaster Management department. Kumawat had replaced senior IAS officer Sanjay Kumar after Kumar was removed from the post on May 21 and transferred to the tourism department.

Kumawat is the second principal secretary to be removed from the health department in the last two months.

"As the COVID-19 situation in the state is getting worse and sacking of health secretary at this point of time has brought surprises to many. It's for the second time that health secretary of the state has been changed on the charges of not listening to such a health minister, who himself has shown least interest in strengthening health infrastructure in the poorly-managed state," health experts said.

Bihar on Monday reported total 41,111 confirmed COVID-19 cases as 2,192 new cases were reported.

Kumawat's removal from the post was for sure after health minister Mangal Pandey had openly complained about the officer with chief minister Nitish Kumar in the presence of all other ministers after the cabinet meeting on Saturday.

Pandey had said that the officer doesn't listen to me and only does what he wants to. However, Kumawat was told by the CM to increase the RT-PCR testing to over 20,000 every day, else action would be taken.

The Bihar CM, who is facing the flak of opposition as well as residents of the state for his handling of the COVID situation, banked upon his trusted lieutenant Amrit, a 1991 batch IAS officer, to get rid of Covid situation.

Pratyaya Amrit had brought many accolades for the CM while handling the departments of road construction, power supply and disaster management.