In a major rejig, Ashok Gehlot overhauls CMO, secretariat & home dept

As was expected, the Gehlot government in its first bureaucratic reshuffle has given reward to the officers who were sidelined and transferred multiple times in the Vasundhara Raje government. The new CM shunted out those who enjoyed plum posting for a long time.

A day after taking oath as the chief minister, Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday transferred 40 IAS officers, making a major overhauling in home, medical and primary education departments and changing face of the administration from secretariat to CMO and even in the districts.

Six ACS level officers, 12 principal secretaries and three collectors were among those transferred. ACS Mukesh Kumar Sharma, who helmed affairs of Transport, Health and UDH in Raje government, has been shifted from finance and made Chairman of Revenue Board, a lesser important portfolio. He would be assisted by Shikhar Agarwal as member of the board who also has been removed from Water Resource department. Both officers were close to former CM Raje and as the Gehlot government came into the power both were removed.

Rajeeva Swaroop will be the new ACS Home while Sudarshan Sethi will look after affairs of Mines and Petroleum along with Forest. The officers sidelined for a long time, finally saw Achhe Din. Veenu Gupta is ACS PWD while Subodh Agarwal is ACS Industries. In the much awaited overhauling Niranjan Kumar Arya, who served Gehlot as secretary in second tenure, was rumoured to get plum posting either in the CMO or the secretariat. It happened in letter and spirit as he has been appointed principal secretary finance, a department that the CM keeps with himself.

Rohit Kumar Singh, currently serving as CMD in Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation, has been promoted and made medical and health principal secretary. Akhil Arora, is principal secretary Social Justice and Empowerment department, Alok is principal secretary to MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) and Arpana Arora is principal secretary to the minority department. The trio enjoyed plum posting in Raje’s tenure. Similarly Praveen Gupta, who was posted in Revenue department for the last five years, has been sent to Ajmer as Revenue Board member. 

It seems that after taking feedback from his team, Gehlot has given reward to a few collectors who had worked with him closely. Gehlot has appointed Gaurav Goyal as managing director of RIICO. Goyal, is currently serving as Kota collector, and had served as Jodhpur collector and commissioner of Jodhpur Development Authority in Gehlot’s previous term.

The face of entire CMO has changed in these transfers. Principal secretary to CM Tanmay Kumar, Joint secretary Virendra Singh Bakawat, secretary Gayatri A Rathore and special secretary Suresh Chand Gupta have been removed from the CMO and appointed on lesser important posting. Tanmay is now Commissioner of Command Area Development, Bakawat is director disabilities and Rathore secretary to women and child development. They have been replaced by a fresh team of four IAS officers who have been appointed as secretaries in the CMO to assist Gehlot. Kuldeep Ranka was appointed principal secretary to the CM. He would be assisted by secretary Ajitabh Sharma and two joint secretaries- Arti Dogra and Rajan Vishal. Along with them, 8 RAS officers have been made joint secretaries and OSDs in the CMO. Shaheen Ali Khan, Deva Ram Saini, Harsahay Meena and Gaurav Bajad are among appointed the joint secretaries.

DB Gupta, Chief Secretary

Notwithstanding the fact that Raje government had made him chief secretary, DB Gupta is one officials who remains a favourite in eyes of Gehlot and continues on top post. Be it Raje or Gehlot governments, Gupta helmed affairs of important departments that shows he is a strong believer of delivering results. In terms of tenure, efficiency and proximity to power centre of the CMO, this 83 batch officer continues as chief secretary. 

Kapil Garg, Chairman, Police Housing & Construction Corp

With the power change in Rajasthan, the hunt for a new DGP has already begun. As per the grapevine IPS officer Kapil Garg, currently posted as chairman of police housing and construction corporation, is the frontrunner in the race to bagv the post of top cop. Garg, an 83 batch officer, is the senior most officer among the IPS. His two batch junior officer, OP Galhotra is currently serving as DGP. Garg held posts of anti terrorist squad in Gehlot’s time.

Anand Srivastav, Kota IG and Anil Paliwal, on deputation in West Bengal

With Ashok Gehlot coming into power, shuffling of top cops including the Jaipur Police commissioner is on the cards. The two IPS officers of 1994 batch are in the race to become the Jaipur commissioner as the Gehlot government is likely to remove the present Commissioner Sanjay Agarwal. Anil Paliwal, who hails from Gehlot’s home town Jodhpur, is frontrunner in getting the post. Paliwal is currently on deputation in West Bengal as IG in South Bengal Frontier. He was Ajmer IG and has also served in Jaipur too. Apart from Paliwal, Kota IG Anand Shrivastava is also a potential candidate as per the sources of the corridors of power. He has been IG in Udaipur and Bharatpur ranges.

The New Team

• Shreya Guha, Tourism principal secretary
• Naresh Pal Gangvar, Planning & IT principal secy
• Roli Singh, Higher & technical education Principal secy
• Bhaskar A Sawant, School education principal secretary
• Praveen Gupta, Ajmer revenue board member
• Hemant Kumar Gera, Medical education secretary
• T Ravikant, DoP secretary
• Naveen Jain, Labour department commissioner
• Naveen Mahajan, Water resource secretary
• KK Pathak, Industry commissioner
• Krishna Kunal, Devasthan Commissioner
• Samit Sharma, NHM Director
• Pradeep Borad, higher education commissioner
• Gaurav Goyal, RIICO MD
• Muktanand Agarwal, Kota Collector