New Delhi: The Centre today sent back three senior IAS officers to Jammu and Kashmir before completion of their tenure here.

Arun Kumar Mehta, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change was sent to Jammu and Kashmir.

The militancy-hit state is at present under the Governor’s rule after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support from its alliance partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June this year.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved premature repatriation of Arun Kumar Mehta, Atal Dulloo and Manoj Kumar Dwivedi to Jammu and Kashmir, according to an order issued by the Personnel Ministry.

All of them are IAS officers of J-K cadre.

Mehta is Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Dulloo and Dwivedi are Joint Secretaries in the Department of Rural Development and the Commerce Ministry respectively.

Former Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik was yesterday sworn in as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He replaced N N Vohra, who was at the helm of affairs in the state for the past 10 years.

PTI

Mumbai: National carrier Air India has removed a general manager (GM) for alleged involvement in a sexual harassment case.

The removal of the GM coincided with the summoning of Air India CMD Pradeep Singh Kharola by the WCD ministry to explain reasons behind the delay in completing probe in the case recently.

The ousted GM was accused of sexual harassment by an Air India air hostess, who had also written a letter to civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu in this regards in May.

As per a airline notification issued last week, general manager for flight dispatch (headquarters) will hold the additional charge of the GM-IFS (HQ).

“General manager flight dispatch will hold the additional charge of the post of GM(IFS), headquarters…the duty assigned to GM(IFS) will be notified in due course,” the Air India general manager (personnel) said in a notification dated August 21.

When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said that the person who till now was holding the charge of GM-IFS is a senior pilot and he is now back into flying.

The removal of the senior executive coincided with the summoning of Air India chairman and managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola by the women and child development (WCD) ministry to explain reasons behind the delay in completing probe in the case recently.

The air hostess (victim) had also met WCD minister Maneka Gandhi, following which her ministry had sought a report from Air India in the case by June.

She had alleged that she had been harassed for the last six years by the senior executive, describing him as a “predator” and equal, if not worse, than Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood film maker charged with sexual misconduct by leading actresses.

The airline had on last Friday informed the WCD ministry that there were 12 cases of alleged sexual harassment before its various internal complaints committees.

In the letter, a copy of which was also marked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the air hostess had asked the government to appoint a ‘neutral’ investigation committee to look into the incident.

Responding to the letter, Mr Prabhu had asked Mr Kharola to immediately address the issue and appoint another committee, if necessary.

“This senior executive is a predator and has sexually propositioned me, abused me, used abusive languages on other women in my presence, spoken of sexual acts with me and other women in my presence in office premises. He has insulted me and denied me positions and privileges after I rejected his advances and he had made my life a misery at work and continues to do so,” she said in her letter dated May 25.

The air hostess maintained that she had lodged a complaint with Air India last September and written to the then CMD, but “none was forthcoming”.

PTI

Hyderabad: The Telangana Government today reshuffled 11 district collectors.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao

The reshuffle saw 10 districts get new collectors M Raghunandan Rao, Collector of Ranga Reddy District, was transferred and posted as Collector and District Magistrate, Hyderabad District, while Yogita Rana,the Hyderabad Collector, was posted as Director, Public Health and Family Welfare.

Lokesh Kumar, Collector and District Magistrate, Khammam, was transferred and posted as Collector and District Magistrate, Ranga Reddy, a release said.

Similarly P Venkata Rami Reddy, Collector and District Magistrate, Siddipet, was transferred as Collector and District Magistrate, Rajanna-Sircilla District.

PTI

New Delhi: A major reshuffle was ordered of the IPS officers in Delhi among the ranks of additional commissioner of police and deputy commissioner of police.

South Delhi DCP Romil Baaniy was shifted to Police Training College in Jharoda Kalan as vice-principal.

According to an official order, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Romil Baaniya has been transferred as vice-principal, Police Training College in Jharoda Kalan.

Vijay Kumar, currently posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) will be replacing Baaniya as DCP (South), it said.

Monika Bhardwaj, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest), will be stepping in Kumar’s shoes as DCP(West).

Amarendra Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (Security) will assume the charge of Additional CP (Traffic), the order said.

Dhiraj Kumar, Additional CP (Security) will assume the charge of Additional CP (Special Branch), it added.

PTI

Chandigarh: The Punjab government has decided to change the head of the special task force set up last year to tackle the drug menace in the state, official sources said.

Chief of anti-drugs STF Harpreet Singh Sidhu will be shifted to CMO.

Additional Director General of Police Harpreet Singh Sidhu will be replaced as chief of the STF on drugs by Punjab State Human Rights Commission DGP Mohammed Mustafa.

Sidhu will be shifted to the Chief Minister’s Office, sources said. The orders are expected soon.

Mustafa is the husband of Punjab minister Razia Sultana.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had made the drug problem a major election issue in 2017, promising results within weeks of coming into power.

He had set up the STF soon after becoming chief minister and brought Sidhu, who was then on central deputation in Naxal-hit Chhattisgarh, to head it.

He was initially asked to report directly to the Chief Minister’s Office.

However, when Amarinder Singh decided to treat STF as another wing of Punjab Police, like Vigilance and Intelligence, Sidhu is learnt to have resisted the move.

IPS officer Mohammed Mustafa who is the husband of Punjab minister Razia Sultana, is likely to be appointed as the chief of anti-drugs STF.

There were also reports of a tussle between Sidhu and Director General of Police Suresh Arora, which also became a cause of embarrassment for the state government.

The STF under Sidhu arrested over 18,000 alleged drug peddlers in one year.

He also started a Drug Abuse Prevention Officers (DAPOs) programme, aimed at involving the civil society in the fight against drugs.

The Punjab government is also likely to pick soon a head for a special task force to probe incidents of police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in 2015 during the agitation against desecration of religious scriptures.

The names of Additional DGP Ishwar Singh, Inspector General (Headquarters) Jatinder Singh Aulakh and IG (Bathinda Range) MF Farooqui are doing the rounds for the post, sources said.

PTI

New Delhi: 30 joint secretaries (JSs) have been appointed in various central government departments as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle effected Monday by the Centre.

IPS officer Sadanand Vasant Date has been appointed Joint Secretary in Department of Justice.

IAS officers Piyush Goel and Nidhi Khare will be joint secretaries in the Home Ministry for five years, an order issued by the personnel ministry said.

Nidhi Mani Tripathi has been appointed JS in Department of Commerce, Anand Mohan Bajaj will be joint secretary of Department of Economic Affairs and Mandeep Bhandari has been named JS in Department of Health and Family Welfare.

IAS officer V Vidyavathi has been moved from Cabinet Secretariat to replace Gyanesh Bharti as joint secretary in ministry of environment, forest and climate change.

Bharti will now be joint secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat.

Senior IPS officer Sadanand Vasant Date has been appointed joint secretary in Department of Justice. He is at present inspector general (operations) in Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

M C Jauhari and Priyank Bharti have been appointed joint secretaries in NITI Aayog and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways respectively.

Bhabani Prasad Pati, a Gujarat-cadre Indian Forest Service officer, and Vismita Tej will be joint secretaries in Coal Ministry, the order said.

Abhilaksh Likhi and Atish Chandra have been named joint secretaries in Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.

Paban K Borthakur, joint secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, has been appointed chairman of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) under Department of Commerce.

IAS officer Partha Sarthi Sensharma will be joint secretary, Department of Fertilizers. R K Khandelwal will be deputy director general, Department of Telecommunications and S Jagannathan has been appointed JS in Department of Food and Public Distribution.

Sukriti Likhi and Mandeep Bhandari will be joint secretaries in Department of Heavy Industry and Department of Health and Family Welfare respectively.

Rajiv Sharma has been appointed financial advisor of NATGRID for a tenure of five years, Neelam Sanghi will be additional central provident fund commissioner (Hqrs), Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation under Ministry of Labour and Vijaylakshmi Bidari will be regional director of Staff Selection Commission in Bangalore.

V Shashank Shekhar, joint secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, has been shifted to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in the same rank.

Ramchandra Meena, an Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officer, has been appointed JS, Department of School Education and Literacy, in place of Shekhar.

Ashish Srivastava will be joint secretary, Ministry of Woman and Child Development. He is at present resident commissioner, Madhya Pradesh Bhawan here.

PTI

New Delhi: Uttarakhand has opposed a plea filed by the Centre seeking transfer of a case involving whistle-blower IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi from the Nainital bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), saying it would entail financial burden on the officer concerned.

IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi

In an affidavit filed before the tribunal, the state government said transferring the case when it was “ripe for final hearing” would not be appropriate as the official work of the department would suffer and sought dismissal of the Centre’s request in this regard.

The tribunal is hearing a case filed by Chaturvedi in July 2017 alleging unsatisfactory assessment of his annual performance appraisal report by officers concerned during his tenure at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

Chaturvedi worked as chief vigilance officer — who acts as a distant arm of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to check corruption in government departments — and deputy secretary at the AIIMS between June 2012 and June 2016.

He exposed corrupt practices at the premier institute during his tenure.

Chaturvedi, a 2002 batch Indian Forest Service officer, had filed the case against the cabinet secretary, the secretary of CVC, the AIIMS director, Union Heath Minister J P Nadda, former AIIMS director M C Mishra and ex-deputy director AIIMS, V Srinivas, and others.

The central government had filed a petition before the chairman of the CAT at New Delhi in December 2017 for transfer of the case from the Nainital bench to Delhi, on which notices were issued to the Uttarakhand government also.

Under the CAT Act, the chairman of the tribunal has the power to transfer cases from one bench to another.

S D Singh, Additional Principal Forest Conservator, filed an affidavit in the tribunal on behalf of the Uttarakhand government.

“It is submitted that the transfer of the case from Nainital to Delhi at this juncture when pleadings are already complete and the case is ripe for final hearingwill not be appropriate as it will not only entail financial burden on the respondent no 1 (Chaturvedi), the official work of the department would also suffer,” he said.

The case is due to be heard by the Nainital bench on October 4.

In the related matter, the Uttarakhand High Court has slammed the chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal for passing a “strange order” on the plea made by the central government seeking transfer of the case.

PTI

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has transferred seven IAS officers, including two Additional Chief Secretaries (ACS), and put one IAS officer under Awaiting Posting Order (APO) status on Friday.

Rajasthan government has transferred seven IAS officers including two Additional Chief Secretaries (ACS) and put one IAS officer under Awaiting Posting Order (APO) status.

Besides, three Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officers were transferred and four IAS officers given additional charge.

ACS of Sanskrit Education Department Ravi Shankar Srivastava was transferred to the Administrative Reforms and Coordination Department as ACS, while Sudarshan Sethi, ACS-General Administrative Department, Cabinet Secretariat, was shifted to Tribal Area Development Department as the ACS.

IAS officers Rohit Kumar Singh, Ashwini Bhagat, Neeraj K Pawan, Rajan Vishal and Shelly Kishnani were also transferred, while IAS officer Arushi A Malik was put under APO status.

Four IAS officers — Shikhar Agrawal, Hemant Kumar Gera, Ashutosh A T Pednekar and Narendra Kumar Gupta were given additional charges, according to the orders issued by the state Department of Personnel.

RAS officers Jai Singh Meghwal, Ramrakh Meena and Kulraj Meena have been transferred.

PTI

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government Saturday transferred 11 IAS officers.

Sanjay Mukherjee has been posted as Secretary, Medical Education and Drugs Department in Mumbai.

As per an order issued by the government, 1992 batch Indian Administrative Service officer Sanjay Sethi, currently CEO of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) will take charge as Additional Municipal Commissioner, Brihamumbai Municipal Corporation in place of Sanjay Mukherjee.

The latter has been posted as Secretary, Medical Education and Drugs Department in Mumbai.

Kavita Gupta, IAS (1985), has been posted as SICOM managing director in place of K H Govind Raj who was been made Commissioner, Skill Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship, Navi Mumbai, it said.

Anup Kumar Yadav, 2002 batch IAS, has been posted as Commissioner (Family Welfare) and Director, National Health Mission, Mumbai.

Parimal Singh, IAS (2004), currently Project Director, Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society has been posted as Special Sales Tax Commissioner, Maharashtra.

H Yashod, who was Commissioner, Employees’ State Insurance Scheme has been posted as Commissioner, Women and Child Development in Pune.

E Ravendiran, IAS (2008), Commissioner, Skill Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship, Navi Mumbai has been posted as Member Secretary, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board.

M J Pradip Chandren, IAS (2012) has been posted as Deputy Secretary (Information Technology) in the General Administration Department while B N Patil has been posted as Director in the Environment department, the order added.

A B Dhulaj, IAS (1999) presently chairman of the Caste Verification Committee in Nagpur has been made Commissioner, Employees’ State Insurance Scheme, Mumbai.

PTI

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar reviewed with DGP B S Sandhu the progress in investigation into the gang rape of a young woman from Rewari and shunted out the district police chief, as raids continued at several places on Sunday to nab the three accused, including an Army man.

Rewari SP Rajesh Duggal, who has been accused of failing to take prompt action, was shunted out and will be replaced Rahul Sharma.

As pressure built on it to act swiftly, the police arrested a registered medical practitioner, who first attended to the woman, and a villager on whose property she was found.

Khattar, who had a scheduled event in Jalandhar in Punjab, cut short his visit and reached Chandigarh in the afternoon, official sources said.

The sources said that Khattar summoned the Director General of Police (DGP) to his office to review the progress in the investigation. The chief minister directed Sandhu to ensure arrest of all the accused at the earliest, the sources said.

Rewari SP Rajesh Duggal, who has been accused of failing to take prompt action, has been shunted out and will be replaced by the SP of chief minister’s security, Rahul Sharma, they said. Duggal will now lead a battalion of Haryana Armed Police in Hisar.

The victim’s family had alleged that police had failed to take prompt action on their complaint and delayed action by citing jurisdiction issue between police units of Rewari and Mahendergarh districts.

The woman, a school topper hailing from Rewari who had been felicitated by the government, was abducted at a bus stop in Kanina town in neighbouring Mahendragarh district on Wednesday while she was on the way to a coaching class, police said.

She was then allegedly drugged and gangraped at a secluded spot.

The woman was recovered from a room housing a tubewell for irrigation.

The owner of the property, Deendayal, who was among the two people arrested, told police that the three key accused had taken keys to the room from him on the day of the incident.

The police claimed Deendayal knew about the crime, but did not report it.

Police continued raids in Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi and some other states to nab the three key accused, a senior official, who is part of the investigation, said Sunday.

“Multiple teams are at job to nab them. We are hopeful of arresting the accused soon,” he said.

Some people have also been rounded up for questioning in connection with the case, police sources said.

The woman’s family members told reporters in Rewari on Sunday that the woman was in “acute trauma”.

“The accused should be hanged,” the woman’s mother told reporters in her village in Rewari.

She also said that the family has decided to return a cheque of Rs 2 lakh handed over to them Saturday by district administration officials under the Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme, 2013.

“We do not want this cheque. Is this the price which is being put for honour of my daughter. All we want is justice. We used to hear about long arm of the law, but what is police doing. The accused are yet to be arrested,” she said.

Police have provided security to the victim’s family.

Doctors at the civil hospital, Rewari, said that the victim’s condition was stable, though she was in trauma.

The Haryana Police had set up a special investigation team headed by Mewat SP Naazneen Bhasin, and announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of the accused.

Police had Saturday released photographs and names of the accused, who have been identified as Army jawan Pankaj, Manish and Nishu.

The accused live in the same village in Rewari and they knew the woman and her family, police said.

Lt Gen Cherish Mathson, who heads the South Western Command of the Army, had said in Jaipur Saturday that they would help the police in the probe.

The victim’s father has said 8 or 10 men may have raped her but she could identify only three of them.

The case evoked sharp reaction from opposition parties who have demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on moral grounds, saying the state had failed to protect its daughters.

PTI

Chandigarh (Haryana): In a major reshuffle, the Haryana Government has issued transfer and posting orders of 41 Haryana Police Service (HPS) officers with immediate effect.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

Most of the 41 HPS officers are at Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) level in the state.

DSP Rewari, Suresh Kumar has been posted as DSP Jhajjar, the official release said.

While assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Panchkula Adarshdeep Singh has been posted as DSP Jind, DSP Rohtak, Dr Ravinder Kumar has been posted as DSP Sonipat.

Jitender Singh, DSP, Law and Order, Hisar has been posted as DSP, Sonipat.

ANI

New Delhi: The BJP government in Chhattisgarh shunted out a senior police officer Thursday following a lathi-charge on Congress workers in Bilaspur town two days ago.

Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chandrakar has been shifted to the police headquarters in Raipur.

Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chandrakar has been shifted to the police headquarters in Raipur, Chief Minister Raman Singh said.

“A magisterial enquiry has been ordered. Bilaspur ASP Neeraj Chandrakar has been attached (posted) to the police headquarters till the probe gets over,” Singh told reporters in Surajpur district.

Seven Congress workers were injured in a lathi-charge on Tuesday following a protest by party workers outside Urban Administration Minister Amar Agrawal’s house. The protest was against Agrawal allegedly calling Congress “Kachra” (garbage).

During the protest, Congress workers allegedly threw garbage inside the minister’s house. Later, 52 Congress workers were arrested from the party’s local office.

The party alleged that police used lathi-charge for no reason while making the arrests, while the police said that some police personnel were manhandled by Congress workers.

Congress leader P L Punia said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be shown black flags during his visit to Janjgir-Champa district on September 22 if Agrawal does not resign and a police case is not lodged against Chandrakar.

“The state government should register an FIR for attempt to murder against Chandrakar instead of just shifting him….instead of a magisterial probe, the incident should be probed by a sitting judge of the high court,” he said.

Punia, the party’s in-charge for Chhattisgarh, was speaking to reporters after a meeting of the executive committee of the state Congress in Bilaspur.

State BJP spokesperson Shivratan Sharma said the opposition party is trying to derive political mileage from the issue.

“Taking serious note of the incident, the government immediately ordered magisterial probe and removed ASP Chandrakar from the district.

“Despite such prompt action, Congress, in a bid to take political advantage, shifted the venue of its executive meeting from Raipur to Bilaspur,” he alleged.

On the Congress’s warning about protest during Modi’s visit, Sharma said the party should not forget that its national leaders will also visit the state in future.

PTI

Chandigarh: Seven IAS officers have been transferred in Haryana on Sunday with immediate effect.

ACS Cooperation and Vigilance departments Navraj Sandhu has been posted ACS Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department

Navraj Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Cooperation and Vigilance departments has been posted ACS, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare department, said an official spokesperson.

Jyoti Arora, ACS, Higher Education and Technical Education departments has been posted as ACS, Cooperation.

Anurag Agarwal, Director General and Secretary, Higher Education department has been posted as Principal Secretary (PS), Higher Education and he will also look after the charge of PS, Technical Education department, spokesman said.

IAS officer Pankaj Agarwal has been posted as Director General, Supplies and Disposals and has also been given additional charge of Transport Commissioner and Secretary, Transport department.

A Sreenivas has been posted as Director and Special Secretary, Higher Education and he will also look after the charge of Director and Special Secretary, Technical Education.

Rippudaman Singh Dhillon has been given the charge of Managing Director, Haryana Warehousing Corporation Ltd.

Atul Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad has been given additional charge of Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Faridabad.

PTI

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government Thursday transferred 13 senior IPS officers, including the Gorakhpur Inspector General and the Kushinagar Superintendent of Police, officials said.

UP Govt transferred 13 senior IPS officers, including the Gorakhpur Inspector General and the Kushinagar Superintendent of Police

Those transferred included three officials of the DG level and five of the ADG level, a Home Department spokesperson said.

IG Gorakhpur Nilabja Chaudhary has been replaced by IG PAC Lucknow Jai Narian Singh, while SP Kushinagar Ashok Kumar Pandey has been removed and SP/ASP Gautambudh Nagar Rajiv Narain Misra has been posted in his place, the spokesperson said.

Besides, the government also transferred 13 officials of the provincial police service, including the PRO to Director General of Police Rahul Srivastava who swaps posts with Assistant Superintendent of Police (technical services) Vivek Tripathi, he added.

PTI

Chandigarh: In a major reshuffle, the Punjab government Sunday transferred 17 IAS officers with immediate effect.

IAS officer Deepti Uppal was today post as Chief Administrator, Amritsar Development Authority.

IAS officer Sarvjit Singh was posted as principal secretary, Water Resources with additional charge of Mines and Geology, Jaspal Singh was given the charge of principal secretary, Transport, an official spokesman said.

Krishan Kumar, currently secretary, School Education, was given additional charge of secretary, Governance Reforms and Public Grievances and Vijay Namdeorao Zade was given the charge of managing director, Punjab Infrastructure Development Board and additional charge of secretary, Horticulture.

Ravinder Kumar Kaushik, who is secretary, Power and New and Renewable Energy Sources, was given the additional charge of commissioner, Roopnagar Division while Gurlovleen Singh Sidhu was posted as as DPI (Colleges), the spokesman said.

Devinder Pal Singh Kharbanda was posted as director, Industries and Commerce and Parshant Kumar Goyal, who is director general, School Education, was given additional charge of secretary, Punjab School Education Board.

Arvind Pal Singh Sandhu was posted as special secretary, Parliamentary Affairs with additional charge of special secretary, Labour while Sandeep Hans was posted as deputy commissioner, Moga.

The services of Deepti Uppal were placed at the disposal of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for posting as chief administrator, Amritsar Development Authority and Komal Mittal was posted as additional commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Amritsar.

Deepshikha Sharma was given the charge of sub divisional magistrate, Banga, and Amarpreet Kaur Sandhu was posted as SDM Hoshiarpur.

IAS officer Amit Kumar Panchal was posted as SDM Nakodar and Aaditya Dachalwal was shifted as SDM Budhlada. Ajay Arora was posted as SDM Dudan Sadan.

Besides, 12 PCS officers were also transferred, the spokesman said.

PTI

New Delhi: The government is expected to take a final call soon on the transfer of a “dying” cadre of about 2,000 personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal to Intelligence Bureau to bolster the latter’s on-ground presence at India’s eastern borders with China, Nepal and other countries, sources said Wednesday.

The proposal was first mooted by NSA Ajit Doval about two years ago.

They said Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba will hold a meeting this week with IB Director Rajiv Jain and newly appointed Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) chief S S Deswal.

According to the Home Ministry’s records accessed by PTI, the agenda of the meeting is to discuss and finalise the long-drawn issue of “transfer of civil wing of SSB to IB”.

Deswal, who took charge as the SSB Director General on September 30, also held consultations with his senior officers at the forces’ headquarters here on Wednesday and elicited views of the civilian cadre on the proposed transfer.

“A number of personnel of the civilian cadre are in favour of getting transferred to the IB and this has been conveyed to the new DG,” a senior official privy to the development said.

The news agency had first reported in September last year that the proposal is a work in progress and 2,765 posts of the civilian cadre of the SSB will be shifted to the IB in the coming days.

Of these posts, around 2,030 are operational.

A government blueprint prepared in this context had said that “the civil wing of the SSB should be transferred to the IB lock, stock and barrel, including land, physical infrastructure, equipment among others”.

The proposal was first mooted by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval about two years ago.

The manpower of the civil wing of the SSB is termed as “dying” as it does not have any substantial promotional and work avenues.

Officials said the idea is to deploy them and use their expertise to strengthen the IB’s presence in the eastern border areas along China, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, where these officials have worked for long.

The men and women of this cadre were seen as fast losing their sheen as they were not getting timely promotions and could not opt for combat posts as their physical fitness did not allow them to perform arduous tasks and their recruitment rules were different from those of the uniformed staffers.

The average age of the personnel in this cadre is above 50 years.

Their task was not only to help the border population in integrating with the mainstream, but to also act as the “eyes and ears” of the SSB, the designated lead intelligence agency on the two borders.

The cadre was first raised in 1963, in the aftermath of the Chinese aggression of the previous year, to work in the border areas and promote a sense of national belonging and pro-India feelings among the local population.

It worked under the external intelligence agency –Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — till 2001, under the name Special Service Bureau.

The name of the force was changed to Sashastra Seema Bal in 2003, following the 1999 Kargil conflict. It was then tasked with guarding the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders on the country’s eastern flank.

The blueprint envisages that once these officials are transferred to the IB, they will be “utilised for different activities related to intelligence, keeping in view the expertise and proficiency of the incumbents”.

The SSB, with a strength of about 80,000 personnel, has been guarding the 1,751-km Indo-Nepal border since 2001 and the 699-km Indo-Bhutan border since 2004.

It is deployed along the international border in the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, with many of its posts located close to the Sino-India border.

PTI

Senior IPS officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota

Chandigarh: Two senior IPS officers in Punjab were shifted with immediate effect on Thursday, officials said.

IPS officer Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, who was handling the charge of Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) has been posted as ADGP (Railways), an official spokesman said.

Another IPS officer, Rohit Choudhary, has been given the charge of ADGP (Prisons) , the spokesman said .

PTI

Chandigarh: The Haryana government on Monday issued transfer and posting orders of 17 IAS and 11 Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers with immediate effect.

Deepti Umashankar, Principal Secretary, Sainik and Ardh Sainik Welfare Department has been given the additional charge of Commissioner, Ambala Division, Ambala.

Among the officers of the Indian Administrative Service, Vivek Joshi, Principal Secretary, Monitoring and Coordination Department, Commissioner, Ambala Division, Ambala, has been posted as Chief Executive Officer, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, Gurugram, an official statement said here.

V Umashankar, Chief Executive Officer, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, Gurugram, has been posted as Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister in place of Rakesh Gupta, who has been posted as Project Director, Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates Programme.

Deepti Umashankar, Principal Secretary, Sainik and Ardh Sainik Welfare Department has been given the additional charge of Commissioner, Ambala Division, Ambala.

Vijay Singh Dahiya, Labour Commissioner and Secretary, Labour Department has been posted as Secretary to Governor and Labour Commissioner and Secretary, Labour Department.

Among other IAS officers to be transferred,T L Satyaprakash, Managing Director, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, has been posted as Director General, Industrial Training and Employment.

Sanjay Joon, Director and Special Secretary, Mines and Geology Department has been posted as Managing Director, Haryana Medical Services Corporation Ltd.

Amit Kumar Agrawal, Secretary to Governor has been posted as Excise and Taxation Commissioner and Special Secretary, Excise and Taxation Department.

Ashima Brar, Excise and Taxation Commissioner and Special Secretary, Excise and Taxation Department has been posted as Deputy Principal Secretary to Chief Minister and Nodal Officer, Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao programme.

Rajiv Rattan, Director, Secondary Education and Special Secretary, School Education Department, will now be the Special Secretary, Home-II Department.

Vijay Kumar Siddappa Bhavikatti, Director and Additional Secretary, Development and Panchayats Department has been given the additional charge of Director, Rural Development.

Priyanka Soni, awaiting orders of posting, has been posted as Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Panipat.

Among HCS officers, Pankaj Chaudhary, Special Secretary, Public Works (Building and Roads), Public Health Engineering Departments and Secretary, Traders’ Welfare Board has been posted as Special Secretary, Finance Department and Secretary, Traders Welfare Board.

Mahavir Kaushik, State Project Director, Haryana School Shiksha Pariyojna Parishad has been posted as Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner.

Shilpy Pattar Dutt, Sub Divisional Officer (Civil), Uchana has been posted as Joint Director (Admn.), Ayush and Sub Divisional Officer (Civil), Uchana.

PTI

Amaravati: The Andhra Pradesh government Tuesday transferred 13 IPS officers, appointing new Superintendents of Police for seven districts.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Two IAS officers were also transferred while three others, who were on wait, have been given postings.

In what is seen as a significant re-jig ahead of next year’s general elections, SPs of Visakhapatnam (Rural), Kadapa, Chittoor, SPS Nellore, Guntur (Rural), Tirupati (Urban) and Kurnool districts have been changed.

Babuji Attada has been transferred from Kadapa to Visakhapatnam (Rural), S V Rajasekhar Babu (2010) has been shifted from Chittoor to Guntur (Rural) and Abhishek Mohanty (2011) has been transferred from Tirupati (Urban) to Kadapa as SP.

K K N Anburajan, Vikrant Patil and Aishwarya Rastogi have been promoted in rank and posted as SP of Tirupati (Urban), Chittoor and SPS Nellore districts respectively, according to an order issued by Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha.

Fakkeerappa Kaginelli has been posted as SP, Kurnool, while the incumbent Gopinath Jetti has been made Chief Vigilance and Security Officer, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.

Rahul Dev Sharma, who was Visakhapatnam (Rural) SP, has been made SP of Special Investigation Team, Vizag.

The SIT was constituted to probe the recent killing of Araku Valley MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and former MLA Siveri Soma.

In other transfers, Ch Venkata Appala Naidu has been posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order-2) in Vijayawada City Commissionerate, P H D Ramakrishna, SP (Special Intelligence Branch), Adnan Nayeem Asmi, DCP (L&O-2) in Visakhapatnam City Commissionerate and Siddharth Kaushal has been made SP (Government Railway Police) at Guntakal.

M Ravindranath Babu, who has been on wait, was posted as DCP (L&O-1), Visakhapatnam City, the Government Order said.

In another order issued by the Chief Secretary, Kurnool district Joint Collector Prasanna Venkatesh (2012) has been transferred and posted as Director, Disaster Management.

P Ravi Subhash has been posted as Kurnool JC in place of Venkatesh.

M V Seshagiri Babu has been posted as Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Sports Authority of AP.

Kritika Batra, who is back from maternity leave, has been posted as Deputy CEO, AP Skill Development Corporation.

T Veera Brahmaiah, who has been on wait, was posted as Deputy Secretary, Social Welfare Department, according to the order.

PTI

Kolkata: In a major reshuffle in the IPS cadre, the state government has removed Ajay Kumar Nand from the post of Director-Security, West Bengal, and replaced him with Vineet Kumar Goyal, an official notification said.

Vineet Kumar Goyal today appointed as new Director-Security of Bengal

Nand will now take over as Additional Commissioner-II, Kolkata Police, it said.

Goyal, who was working as Additional Commissioner-I, Kolkata Police, has been asked to take over his new assignment, in the rank of Inspector General of Police, with immediate effect.

Jawed Shamim, who was Additional Commissioner-II, Kolkata Police, will be replacing Goyal, the notification added.

PTI