New Delhi: The Bihar government on Friday announced the transfer of 22 IAS officers, including five district magistrates (DMs), and 45 officers from the Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) in a bureaucratic reshuffle. The general administration department issued a notification, stating that Patna DM Chandrasekhar Singh, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has been moved to the chief minister’s secretariat as special secretary. Singh had recently made headlines for his letter spat with the state education department over shutting down schools in Patna due to cold wave conditions.
Speculation are rife that Nitish Kumar will soon be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for a seventh term with the support of his previous ally BJP. The BJP will get two Deputy CM posts for backing Nitish Kumar, as was done after the 2020 Assembly elections, sources said.
Singh’s successor is Shirsat Kapil Ashok, a 2011-batch IAS officer, who is currently the IG (prisons). Naval Kishor Choudhary, a 2013-batch IAS officer, who is the DM of Gopalganj, has been transferred to Bhagalpur as the new DM.
Subrat Kumar Sen, a 2013-batch IAS officer, who is the DM of Bhagalpur, has been posted as the DM of Muzaffarpur. Arvind Kumar Choudhary, a 1995-batch IAS officer, who is the principal secretary (finance), has been given the additional charge of principal secretary (rural development department).
Senthil K Kumar, a 1996-batch IAS officer, who is the principal secretary, home department, has been made the principal secretary of planning department. Safeena AN, a 1997-batch IAS officer, who is the principal secretary, minorities welfare department, has been appointed as the member, revenue board.
The notification also said that 45 officers of Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) have been given new postings. The transfers came after the Bihar government had assigned new postings to 29 senior IAS officers on January 23 in a major bureaucratic rejig.
A senior GAD official said that the transfers and postings made in the last few days were part of routine exercise.