The Uttar Pradesh government carried out a major administrative reshuffle on Friday, transferring 20 IAS officers in one sweep. Several senior officers have been handed fresh responsibilities, while a number of districts have received new Chief Development Officers (CDOs). The reshuffle touches key departments including medical education, culture, labour, the rural livelihood mission, energy, revenue and child development.
Senior officers get new charges
IAS officer Sudha Verma has been made Labour Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh, while Dr. Sarika Mohan has been appointed Director General of the Planning department. Neha Sharma has been given charge of the medical education department, taking over as both Director General and Secretary of the Medical Education Department. Arvind Kumar has been named Mission Director of the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission. J. Reebha has been given additional charge as Additional Director, Printing and Stationery.
Big changes in culture and child development departments
The culture department has also seen several reassignments. Deepa Ranjan has been made Special Secretary of the Culture Department. Sanjay Kumar Singh-1 will now serve as Director, Charity, while also holding additional charge as Director, Culture. Vishal Singh has been removed from the post of Director (Information) and instead given charge as Special Secretary, Culture Department, and Director, Culture. In the Child Development and Nutrition Department, Nidhi Kumari has been appointed Special Secretary, while Renu Tiwari has been moved out of her post as Secretary of the State Women's Commission and made Special Secretary in the same child development department. Separately, Jag Prawesh has been appointed Special Secretary of the Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department.
Postings in energy, tax and revenue departments
In the energy sector, Sandeep Bhagia has been made Managing Director (MD) of Madhyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited. In the tax department, Amit Khatri has been appointed Additional Commissioner, State Tax, in Gautam Buddha Nagar, while Ajay Kumar Gautam has been given the same post in Ghaziabad First. In the Board of Revenue, Manikandan A has been made Additional Land Management Commissioner. Dr. Vandana Verma has been appointed Special Secretary of the Sugar and Cane Department and also holds additional charge as Joint Managing Director (JMD) of the UP Cooperative Sugar Mills Federation Limited.
New Chief Development Officers in districts, and other postings
Several changes have also taken place at the district level. Rakesh Kumar Patel has been made the new Chief Development Officer (CDO) of Azamgarh, Alok Kumar has been given charge of Ballia, and Sanjay Kumar Singh has been handed responsibility for Etawah. Separately, Ojaswi Raj has been appointed Municipal Commissioner of the Mathura-Vrindavan Municipal Corporation.
An effort to strengthen the administrative machinery
The state government's sweeping reshuffle is being seen as an important step toward making the governance system more effective and speeding up departmental functioning. The posting of new officers in several key departments is expected to bring greater pace to administrative work, while the appointment of new CDOs in the districts could have a direct impact on the speed of development projects running in those areas.
