Modi effects top-level bureaucratic reshuffle

Ten secretaries have been shifted to different ministries, including the high profile Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg. Garg has been shunted out to Minority Affairs Ministry as part of the reshuffle, ten months ahead of his retirement.

Sources in the Telecom Ministry said that Garg has been shifted over his poor show in connecting villages through internet under the BharatNet scheme of the department. “The Prime Minister was not satisfied with the performance of Garg in the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project as cables have been laid in only 36,738 villages out of a total of 2,50,000 gram panchayats,” a highly placed source in the ministry said.

Even though, Garg had given about 11 presentations to Modi on fast tracking the BharatNet plan, which is a pet project of the PM, nothing worked in his favour and he was finally eased out. Similarly, Shankar Agarwal, the former Urban Development Secretary, was also shifted to Labour Ministry after his over dozen presentations on Smart Cities had failed to impress Modi in February last. Garg, was shifted to Telecom Ministry from his parent cadre Uttar Pradesh in July 2014, two months after the formation of Modi government.

Garg has been replaced by a 1982 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre JS Deepak, who is at present Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology. While Garg, a 1980 batch IAS officer, has been appointed Secretary in Minority Affairs Ministry in place of Amarendra Sinha, who is holding additional charge of the post, an order issued on Friday by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Ministry said. Garg had taken over as Telecom Secretary on July 17, 2014 and he is due to retire in November.

In another key appointment, Shobhana K Pattanayak has been made the new Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, in place of Siraj Hussain, on his superannuation at the end of this month. Pattanayak is a 1982-batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre. Pattanayak is presently Chairman of Bangalore Development Authority.

Aruna Sharma, at present working in her cadre state – Madhya Pradesh, has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, in place of Deepak, the DoPT order stated. 

Krishan Kumar Jalan, who is Central Provident Fund Commissioner in Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, has been appointed as Ministry of Labour and Employment Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Avinash K Srivastava, a 1982 batch IAS officer, has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing, the release said. Srivastava is Special Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.

Vinod Agrawal, Secretary, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), has been made Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, while Tribal Affairs Secretary Arun Jha has been given the task to handle the affairs of NCSC as its new Secretary. Shyam S Agarwal, Secretary of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Agarwal has been given additional charge of NCST for a period of three months or till the appointment of a regular incumbent.