One month after he took over as the chief secretary, Johny Joseph effected a major bureaucratic reshuffle. As many as 28 Indian Administrative Service officers in the Maharashtra administration were transferred on Thursday.
The significant changes include appointment of additional chief secretary Neela Satyanarayan, at the helm of revenue department led by Revenue Minister Narayan Rane. Satyanarayan, who was forest secretary, now has an important challenge to turnaround the most corrupt department in the state secretariat.
Cooperatives Secretary J.P. Dange will be new forests secretary while former head of Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHDA) training institute Ratnakar Gaikwad will take over Dange’s post.
Despite the controversial report on Khairlanji from YASHDA — which blamed local police officers for the goof-up in the case involving the killing of a Dalit family near Nagpur, Gaikwad managed to get the key posting.
Deshmukh has handpicked Excise Commissioner C.S. Sangitrao as secretary to the chief minister (CM), along with Umesh Sarangi.
The second slot of the secretary to the CM has been vacant for the last five months as Subhash Lalla was shifted to the Human Rights Commission.
{{/usCountry}}The second slot of the secretary to the CM has been vacant for the last five months as Subhash Lalla was shifted to the Human Rights Commission.
{{/usCountry}}Two women officers — Finance Secretary Kavita Gupta and Principal Secretary Leena Mehendale (animal husbandry and dairy development) — have been shunted out of the secretariat. Gupta will head the Maharashtra Small Scale Industries Development Corporation. Mehendale will take over as the managing director of Haffkine Bio-pharmaceutical Corporation.
ketaki.ghoge@hindustantimes.com