In a massive administrative reshuffle, Rajasthan government has transferred 62 IAS officers, including ten district collectors with immediate effect. The reshuffling was targeted majorly on mid-level officers while senior bureaucracy was minorly affected.
Among senior officers, chairman of Revenue Board Ajmer, Ashok Shekhar was transferred to Indira Gandhi Canal Board as the Chairman and in his place OP Saini will be heading the Revenue Board. Saini was earlier ACS Water Resources.
The major shuffle was of Jaipur Development Authority Commissioner Shikhar Agrawal who was shifted to the Water Resources Department as Secretary. Vaibhav Galaria, Commissioner of Bureau of Investment Promotion would be the new JDC. He has earlier the collector for Jhalawar. JDA secretary Pawan Arora has been moved to local self-governance.
Nihal Chand Goel, additional chief secretary (ACS), has also been made incharge of the art and culture department. He already has Wildlife, Forest and Environment with him besides coordination of mines and petroleum. This indicates that Goel could be a perfect candidate for the next chief secretary.
IAS Roli Singh, secretary of tourism department, has been shifted to medical education in place of Prithvi Raj Singh. Prithvi Raj, special secretary in the medical education department, will now oversee the labour department as commissioner. Ashutosh A T Pednekar, who was tourism director and managing director of RSRTC, has now been posted as commissioner, college education, and special secretary, higher education department.
District Collectors of Bhilwara, Sriganganagar, Dausa, Bharatpur, Jhunjhunu, Tonk, Hanumangarh, Pratapgarh, Sirohi and Banswara has been replaced too.
Pratapgarh collector Chandra Shekhar Mutha, has been made secretary of state election commission, as Neha Giri will take the command of Prartapgarh. Tonk collector Mahvir Prasad Sharma will now be the collector of Bhilwara and will be replaced by Subey Singh Yadav. L N Meena, the Sirohi collector, has been made commissioner of the colonization department.
Dausa collector Ashfaq Hussain has been transferred to the national secondary education abhiyaan as Naresh Kumar Sharma will be the new collector of Dausa. Hanumagarh collector, Gyana Ram, has been shifted to Sriganganagar and Narendra Kumar Gupta has been given the command of Bharatpur. Pradeep Kumar Borad, a trusted aide of Ashok Gehlot, has been moved to Jhunjhunun as collector.
Nine officials, who were serving the Union government as assistant secretaries have also been posted as assistant collectors in various districts.
Bringing officers of Indian Forest Services into administrative systems, Akanksha Chaudhary, wife of Jaipur collector Siddarth Mahajan has been appointed as the managing director of Jaipur City Transport Services.
In an attempt to eradicate corruption, Rajasthan government is taking steps to dig out and replace the already corrupted officials from her bureaucracy. This could be a turning point for the state governance.