Key appointments made in Haryana CM's Office; Arun Gupta is Personal Secretary to Saini
After apparent nod from the party high command, the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government has made crucial appointments in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) by appointing senior IAS officer Arun Kumar Gupta as Principal Secretary to Chief Minister (PSCM).
Gupta was earlier posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Town and Country Planning and Urban Estates Department and Industries and Commerce. The post of the PSCM has been lying vacant after earlier incumbent V Umashankar went on central deputation.
Bureaucratic rejig
* Arun Kumar Gupta appointed PSCM, previous incumbent V Umashankar gets central deputation
* Saket Kumar is new APSCM, his predecessor Amit Kumar Agrawal is Secretary, Development & Panchayats and MD, HVPN
* Ashima Brar, ex-APSCM to hold the charge of Director General, SEWA Department. Yash Pal is DPSCM
No decision yet on advisers, OSDs
While the Saini Government has made bureaucratic appointments in the CMO, certain political appointments, such as media adviser, political adviser and a couple of officers on special duty (OSDs), are yet to be appointed. The names of two former ministers who lost the recently-held Assembly polls, besides certain BJP functionaries, are doing rounds for these posts
According to an order issued by Chief Secretary Vivek Joshi, Saket Kumar, Managing Director of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) and Director General, Medical Education and Research and Secretary of the Energy Department will be the Additional Principal Secretary to CM (APSCM) replacing Amit Kumar Agrawal.
Agrawal, who was working as APSCM besides holding the charge of Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates Programme, will continue to hold the charge of Secretary, Development and Panchayats Department and Managing Director, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN).
Another APSCM, Ashima Brar, will continue to hold the charge of Director General, Social Justice, Empowerment and Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and Antyodaya (SEWA) Department. Another APSCM is yet to be appointed in her place.
Yash Pal, currently posted as Director, Urban Local Bodies, and Mission Director, State Urban Livelihood Mission and State Urban Development Authority and Director, Consolidation of Land Holidings and Land Records and Special Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, will be the Deputy Principal Secretary to CM.
After swearing-in on October 17, the Saini government has appointed former senior bureaucrat as Chief Principal Secretary to the CM while other appointments were kept pending.
