Putting aside all speculations, chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has reposed his trust in Akhil Arora and Anand Kumar, who are handling two important departments – finance and home – continuing from Gehlot government.
In an early morning- late night reshuffle, government changed 108 IAS officers including collectors of 13 districts.
“The government couldn't find any better alternate to Akhil Arora for finance. In this transfer list other batchmates of Arora – his wife Aparna Arora, Alok and Sandeep Verma, who has recently been transferred remained untouched. Additional chief secretary to CM Shikhar Agarwal is also from 1993 batch, Arora has been in finance since October 2020. He joined as principal secretary and got promoted as ACS in the same department in 2022, said a senior IAS officer.
He said that the chief minister also decided not to touch home department.
“Anand Kumar has been doing good job. Also he is among few officers who was known personally to CM. Kumar had served as collector Bharatpur. He was posted as principal secretary home in October 2022 and later got promoted in the same department,” the IAS officer said.
Changed the face of urban development
In this list, the government has decided to uplift the face of urban development.
Vaibhav Galriya, who has performed well as JDA Commissoner and handled the job of principal secretary UDH as additional charge on couple of occasions, has been given important posting as principal secretary UDH. He was serving as principal secretary agriculture where also he was performing well in absence of agriculture minister. Under his leadership, all important kharif sowing completed.
Galriya has been also given additional charge of chairman housing board and Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
With Galriya, the government has also changed commissioner of Jaipur Development Authority. Anandhi, who has done well in mines department, has been given responsibility of JDA. She has replaced Manju Rajpal, who has been transferred as secretary and registrar, cooperatives.
Besides JDA secretary Hem Pushpa Sharma has also been replaced with Nishant Jain, who was serving as Barmer collector. Jain has been rewarded for his good work as collector including handling of the massive fire which broke out in July this year.
“Recently, ACB has caught JDA officials taking bribe red handed. The ACB has unmasked the corrupt system prevailing in authority while issuing patta. Post this, zone deputy commissioners were reshuffled and transferred,” said a JDA official.
Rajesh Kumar Yadav, who was awaiting posting order while handing additional charge of skill development after his return from central deputation, has been posted principal secretary local self government. This department needed a capable officer for an uplift.
“Local self government department, which handles all the municipal corporations and local bodies, was under additional charge for long time. Yadav is a result oriented officer. He is a good choice,” said a senior officer.
The government has also brought in new director local bodies in Kumar Pal Gautam, who has prior experience of working for urban infrastructure development. He had earlier served as commissioner housing board and project director RUIDP, where he had contributed well.
“DLB is a challenging post. An upright and clean officer like Gautam is a good choice for this,” the officer added.
Rajasthan Housing Board has also got a new commissioner. Rashmi Sharma, who was director tourism has been posted as commissioner housing board. For long time, this important department was being handled as an additional charge.
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