Central Reshuffle On The Cards Now

Top sources in the government said that the new home secretary will be appointed in the next few days to succeed Ajay Kumar Bhalla, whose tenure is ending on August 22 later this month. 

Also, following the appointment of Somanathan as the Cabinet Secretary, there will be a vacancy of Secretary, Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance when Mr Somanathan moves to the Cabinet Secretariat. 

“It appears that there will be a large-scale reshuffle in the top-level administration,” a source said, adding “besides filling in the vacancies, the top officials will also be shuffled.”

Moreover, the tenure of the Defence Secretary, Giridhar Armane will expire in October so a new Defence Secretary will have to be appointed in the next two months. 

Recently, UP cadre IAS officer of 1989 batch Devesh Chaturvedi was appointed as Secretary, Agriculture while Bihar cadre officer of 1993 Sandeep Pondrik has been Secretary, Ministry of Steel. Additionally, as many as 16 additional secretary-level officers were appointed or shuffled. Prominent in the list was Amit Singh Negi, 1999 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS officer, who has been shifted from the Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance to the Prime Minister’s Office as Additional Secretary. 

In another round of changes, almost 40 joint secretary-level officials have been shuffled into middle-level bureaucracy.