Senior IAS officer Aradhana Johri has been shifted out as Disinvestment Secretary to Cabinet Secretariat and Sanjay Mitra has been named as the new Road Transport and Highways Secretary as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle. Johri, a 1980 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been replaced by Neeraj Kumar Gupta, Special Secretary in Department of Public Enterprises. Gupta has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Disinvestment vice Johri, on her appointment as Chairperson of National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention under Cabinet Secretariat, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said without mentioning the reason for Johri’s ouster.
Whereas Mitra, who is presently working in his cadre state West Bengal, will be the new Secretary of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. He will take over from Vijay Chhibber, who superannuates on Thursday, it said. Amitabh Kant, Secretary in Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, has been given additional charge of the post of CEO, NITI Aayog, consequent on completion of tenure of Sindhushree Khullar.
Khullar was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the NITI Aayog for a fixed term of one year, which ends on Thursday. Rashmi Verma, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Textiles. Verma, who is presently Special Secretary in Department of Revenue, will take the new charge from Sanjay Kumar Panda after his superannuation on December 31. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved that Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat will continue to hold the additional charge of the post of Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat till the appointment of a regular incumbent.
