With little more than six months left for Haryana assembly elections, chief minister Manohar Khattar has revamped his office. He reshuffled 58 departments among his six officers. Rajesh Khullar, who is chief principal secretary to CM, has emerged the most powerful bagging the maximum -17 departments followed by Ashima Brar who got 11 departments. Khullar is a 1988-batch IAS, joined Manohar Lal Khullar's after retirement in September 2013 while Ashima Brar is a 2004 batch IAS, currently serving as additional principal secretary to Khattar. Khullar has been made the overall incharge of CMO. The veteran IAS officer also has rich international exposure with his posting as executive director of World Bank Group.
Among other officers in the CMO, V Umashankar, a 1993-batch IAS, who is principal secretary to CM, has been given en responsibility of 10 departments while Amit Agrawal, 2003-batch IAS, has been handed over nine departments. However, the department of urban local body has been taken away from Agrawal and handed over to V Umashankar.
Devendra Singh, a 1987-batch former IAS who joined chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar as advisor (irrigation) after retirement in July 2022, had got three departments while two officers on special duty (OSDs) – Sudhanshu Gautam and Bhupeshwar Dayal have got six and two departments respectively.
The redistribution of departments between the officers is likely to bring some pace in the implementation of government schemes and plans before the assembly elections. Khullar has got important departments like home, energy, industry and commerce, information and public relation, revenue and rural and urban planning among others
Ashima Brar has got departments like agriculture and farmers' welfare, consumer affairs, food and animal husbandry among others.
V Umashankar has got cooperative, civil aviation, urban local bodies and finance among others while Amit Agrawal has got tourism, higher education and school education among others.
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