11 Joint Secys appointed to ministries

Senior IAS officer Nikunj Kumar Srivastava has been appointed as Joint Secretary in Personnel Ministry as part of a mid-level bureaucratic reshuffle, effected by the government on Thursday.

As many as 11 Joint Secretaries (JS) have been appointed to various ministries, who include eight IAS officers and three from other services.

Srivastava, a 1998-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is presently working as Private Secretary to Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. He has been appointed as JS in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for the balance period of his five year central deputation tenure up to June 2, 2018, an official order said.

Indian Forest Service officer Vikram Singh Gaur has been appointed as JS in the NITI Aayog. IAS officers Gyanesh Bharti and Vivek Joshi have been appointed as JS in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Department of Expenditure, respectively, it said.

SK Dev Verman is new JS in the Ministry of Minority Affairs and RK Sudhanshu has been made Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, the order issued by DoPT said.

Santosh D Vaidya, a 1998-batch IAS officer of Union Territories cadre, has been appointed as JS, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Forest Service officer OP Chaudhary is JS in Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries. Indian Postal Service officer SC Barmma is new JS in Department of Justice, while Rakesh Kumar has been appointed as Senior Deputy Director General in ICMR, it said.