IFS-IPS combo at driver’s seat: IB chief Nehchal Sandhu is new Dy NSA

Nehchal Sandhu (R) with his would-be boss Menon (File photo)

BIHAR cadre IPS officer and current director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) Nehchal Sandhu will be the next deputy National Security Adviser in place of Vijaya Latha Reddy, a 1975 batch IFS officer who is completing her term in March next year. Traditionally dominated by IFS officers, except during veteran police officer…
MK Narayanan’s tenure, National Security Council will now have an influential IPS officer as second-in command.
It was an IAS officer Shekhar Dutt of 1969 batch of Madhya Pradesh who became the first Deputy NSA on a two-year-term when the post was created in 2007. Dutt is the brother-in-law of current principal secretary to PM and India’s most powerful bureaucrat Pulok Chatterji.
Currently, National Security Advisor (Shivshankar Menon) and deputy NSA (Vijaya Latha Reddy) are both IFS officers. Out of four NSAs beginning ex-IFS officer Brajesh Mishra of Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, only Narayanan was an IPS. The other NSAs, JN Dixit and incumbent Shivshankar Menon are both IFS officers.
Nehchal Sandhu’s appointment as deputy NSA will be for a three-year term. This 1973 batch IPS will be appointed on a contract basis as Officer on Special Duty until March 31, 2013 when the term of the current incumbent Vijaya Latha Reddy ends.

Babu Marriage
The government has allowed Vishwa Mohan Sharma, a 2010 batch Nagaland cadre IAS, for an inter-cadre transfer to Rajasthan on the ground of marriage to Ms Sudeep Kaur, a 2010 batch Rajasthan cadre Indian Forest Service officer.

Action and Appointments
a) Indrajit Pal, a 1977 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer, presently in the cadre, has been appointed as secretary in the department of chemicals and petrochemicals in place of Jose K Cyriac.
b) MF Farooqui, a 1978 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS, presently special secretary in the ministry of environment and forests has been appointed as secretary in the department of heavy industry in place of S Sundareshan, a 1976 batch Kerala cadre IAS who has retired.
c) RH Khwaja, a 1978 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS and secretary in the ministry of mines will hold additional charge of the post of secretary of ministry of steel from December 22, 2012 to January 6, 2013 during the absence on leave of secretary DRS Chaudhary, a 1977 batch MP cadre IAS.