Wednesday, 21 July 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
In the reshuffle the team TSR I which remained unchanged during TSR II has been sidelined
By shuffling the officers of Indian Administrative Services (IAS) like a pack of cards the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has given virtually a new look to the bureaucracy of the state. In the reshuffle, the team Trivendra Singh Rawat which had remained unchanged during the stint of Tirath Singh Rawat as chief minister has been sidelined. Many officers who ruled the roost during TSR I and TSR II have been sent into oblivion while some others who were cold shouldered earlier have returned back to prominence.
CM Dhami started his innings with a bang when he removed powerful Om Prakash from the position of chief secretary of the state and replaced him with S S Sandhu who was heading National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). He then followed it up by shuttling one of the senior most and upright officer, Radha Raturi and powerful Radhika Jha out from the chief minister’s office. Dhami picked experienced and efficient additional chief secretary Anand Vardhan to look after his office.
In the late night rejig affected on Monday, the CM further diluted the authority of husband-wife duo of Radhika and Nitesh Jha who were referred to as power couple during the reign of Trivendra Singh Rawat. Plum assignments such as Home and Jail have been removed from Nitesh Jha while Power department has been taken away from Radhika Jha though she was compensated to some extent by giving the charge of school education department. In the reshuffle Anand Vardhan and Manisha Panwar have emerged more powerful as plum assignments such as home and finance have been handed over to them respectively. Ashish Srivastava, considered as the blue eyed boy of Trivendra Singh Rawat has been replaced with R Rajesh Kumar on the position of District Magistrate (DM) of Dehradun. It is learnt that the process of the transfers in the bureaucracy would continue with change of DMs of many districts on the anvil.
