In a major reshuffle Rajasthan government reshuffled 62 IAS officer while giving additional charges to 21 IAS officers. In this process, there are officers who have gained in terms of getting departments which have better scope of work.
Subodh Agrawal, the senior most IAS officer of 1988 batch, has been transferred from director General Indira Gandhi Panchayatiraj Sansthan to chairman and managing director Rajasthan Finance Corporation. The IGPS is considered as cold storage in Rajasthan bureaucracy. There will be some fresh of air for Agrawal, who is scheduled to retired in December this year. He has six months left to infuse fresh lease of life to the finance corporation, which is not in action for quite some years.
Sandeep Verma, a 1994 batch IAS officer, known for his creativity and intellectual exploits, has got a comparatively better portfolio to serve as additional chief secretary skills and entrepreneurship, employment department. He had little to do in his previous assignment as chairman and managing director State Warehousing Corporation.
Bhaskar Sawant, a 1995 batch officer, is considered as gainer in this transfer list. He has been transferred as additional chief secretary home, which is headed by chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. In his previous stints, he had performed well in energy and PHED departments. He is considered a result oriented silent worker. He will have a challenge in his hand as the police department awaits a new DGP next month when the acting DGP Ravi Prakash Meharda retires.
Ajitabh Sharma, a 1996 batch officer, hogged the limelight for successfully conducting Rising Rajasthan Global Business Summit attracting a record investment of over Rs 3 lakh crore as principal secretary industries. Now he has been given a challenging and important task as principal secretary energy. Sharma will have his task cut out as the energy sector has received investment proposal of more than Rs 28 lakh crore during Rising Rajasthan. He will have to realise those proposals on ground. To his support, the government has given additional charge of chairman and managing director Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RREC) to Rohit Gupta, commissioner industries who had also been instrumental in the success of the summit.
Ajitabh Sharma had held this portfolio earlier also during Gehlot government. He had then rolled out a new policy on renewable energy in his brief tenure.
Rajesh Kumar Yadav, a 1996 batch officer, has also been given important department of tourism, which is a major contributor in the SGDP of Rajasthan. Yadav was earlier serving as principal secretary local self governance. The department of tourism is importantly department held by deputy chief minister Diya Kumari, who has keen interest in promoting heritage tourism. In recent times, Rajasthan had stole headlines by organising IIFA awards at Jaipur. With the changing geo political situation after Operation Sindoor and Middle East crisis, Yadav has a tough task ahead to outnumber foreign tourism from previous year.
Vaibhav Galriya, a 1998 batch officer, has been the brightest gainer getting the important finance portfolio – the department held by Akhil Arora for more than four and a half years. The consistent performance of Galriya in his previous departments PWD, Agriculture and UDH has a lot to contribute in his transfer to finance department. With the legacy of Akhil Arora in the department, Galriya will have to go extra mile to make people forget financial juggernaut of Arora, who kept the finances ticking in adverse financial conditions.
With the first quarter almost over, Galriya has left with three quarters to fill the state coffers and manage the expenditures in a judicious way.
Debasish Prusty, a 2000 batch IAS officer, has been given important portfolio of urban development and housing. He was serving as principal secretary finance (budget). Before that he was on an international posting in embassy at Brussels. Prusty is considered a diligent worker. He had performed well in his previous assignment and the state government rewarded him with this prized posting.
He has a tough task ahead with UDH department remaining always in limelight. Coming from the boardrooms of finance department, Prusty will have to take the driver seat to fuel the urban development in the state.
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