IAS Officer Ajay Kumar Bhalla Appointed Next Union Home Secretary

New Delhi: Power Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Wednesday was appointed Officer on Special Duty in the Home Ministry and he will take over as the new Union Home Secretary succeeding Rajiv Gauba when he retires on August 31.

According to an official order, Bhalla, a 1984 batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, will join the MHA with immediate effect and continue to function as OSD till Gauba retires for smooth transition of the charges.

Bhalla will have a fixed two-year tenure as union home secretary till August 2021.

The government also appointed Atanu Chakraborty, a 1985 batch Gujarat cadre IAS officer, as the new Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs succeeding S C Garg, who will be the new Power Secretary.

Anil Kumar Khachi, a 1986-batch IAS from Himachal Pradesh cadre will be the new Secretary, Disinvestment succeeding Chakraborty, a government order said.

Anshu Prakash, 1986-batch UT cadre IAS officer, was appointed Secretary in the Department of Telecommunication while his batch-mate from West Bengal cadre RS Shukla will join as Secretary, Parliamentary Affairs, it said.

Ravi Capoor, a 1986-batch Assam Meghalaya cadre, was appointed Secretary, Textiles while his batch-mate Atul Chaturvedi was sent to Animal Husbandry and Dairying department in same capacity.

Another Gujarat cadre officer P D Vaghela, 1986-batch, will be the new Secretary in Department of Pharmaceuticals, the order said.

GV Venugopala Sarma, IAS from Odisha cadre, was appointed Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority in the rank and pay of Secretary by temporarily upgrading the post.

His batch mate from Gujarat, Guruprasad Mohapatra was appointed Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. Mohapatra is the Chairman, Airports Authority of India in the Civil Aviation Ministry.

The ACC also cleared in-situ upgrade of 12 IAS officers of 1986 batch to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary, as a measure personal to them, by temporarily upgrading the post held by them, the order said.

Those 1986-batch IAS promoted as special secretaries include Anil Kumar Jain in the Environment Ministry, Subash Chandra in the Department of Defence, Sanjeev Nandan Sahai in the Power Ministry, Shambhu Singh in the Roads and Transport Ministry, Ravi Mittal in the Department of Financial Services, Pramod Kumar Das in the Department of Expenditure and Sanjeeva Kumar in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it said.

IAS from MP cadre S P Singh Parihar, Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board was given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said. Rakesh Kumar Gupta, Jammu Kashmir cadre IAS officer, was appointed Secretary, Union Public Service Commission, it said.

Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi from Bihar cadre will be new Director General in the Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the rank and pay of Secretary. Satbir Bedi, IAS from UT cadre serving as Chairperson, National Council for Teacher Education was given the rank and pay of Secretary.

Umesh Sinha, UP cadre IAS, currently serving as Deputy Election Commissioner has been given the rank and pay of Secretary, it said.