The Centre on Wednesday night carried a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle, appointing 16 new secretaries. While Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba will replace Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi when he completes his term on August 30; World Bank Executive Director Subhash Garg will take over as Economic Affairs Secretary.
The reshuffle will see new Babus heading administrative set-up in NHAI, Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Telecom Ministry, Road Transport Ministry among others.
A 1982-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, Gauba will take over as the Officer on Special Duty in the Union Home Ministry with immediate effect. An order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said he will take over as the Home Secretary from August 31.
Gauba has served in the Home Ministry as joint and additional secretary where he looked after the crucial Naxal division. Durga Shanker Mishra will replace Gauba as the Urban Development Secretary. He is now the Additional Secretary in the same ministry.
Culture Secretary NK Sinha will be the new Information & Broadcasting Secretary in place of Ajay Mittal, who has been moved as DoPT Secretary. DoPT Secretary BP Sharma retires this month-end. Senior bureaucrat Subhash C Garg, Executive Director in the World Bank, will be the new Department of Economic Affairs Secretary, a post that had fallen vacant after the retirement of Shaktikanta Das.
Aruna Sundararajan will be the new Telecom Secretary. She is at present the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. NHAI chief Yudhvir Singh Malik has been appointed the Road, Transport and Highways Secretary.