How to mentor a Deputy CM: IAS Sudhir Kumar appointed as principal secretary to Tejashwi’s dept

Sudhir Kumar, 2nd from right (file photo)

Sudhir Kumar, a 1982 batch Bihar cadre IAS and the one who as OSD to Lalu Prasad helped the Bihar politician taking credit of Indian Railways’ turnaround between 2004-2009, was on Wednesday given a new assignment – Bihar’s principal secretary of the road construction department, one of the three departments being handled by Lalu Prasad’s younger son and state’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. Meanwhile, Sudhir Kumar who is set to retire on March next year, has been elevated the rank of a…
chief secretary. Tejashwi Prasad, 26, is new to politics, and was elected for the first time to Bihar Legislative Assembly from Raghopur constituency on a Rashtriya Janata Dal ticket.
According to a Bihar government notification issued on Wednesday, RK Mahajan, 1987 batch Bihar cadre IAS, has also been shifted to the health department where the minister is Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap. Like Kumar, Mahajan is also a Lalu Prasad confidant. He was private secretary to Prasad when the latter was the union railway minister during the UPA-I regime.
Both these IAS officers are now expected to mentor Lalu Prasad’s sons who have been given important portfolios in the newly installed Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar.
Sudhir Kumar who will now mentor Bihar’s deputy CM is a post-graduate in commerce and understands the roads and transportation well. Recently, he was also the Member (PPP) in National Highways Authority of India.
But Kumar’s high-point in the career was his position as OSD in Rail Bhawan. It was claimed that the Indian Railways became profitable during Lalu Prasad’s time and a huge profit figure, Rs 90,000 crore, was highlighted across the globe. Even researchers from the Harvard University landed up in Sudhir’s Kumar’s chambers to understand the rail magic. The subsequent Mamata Banerjee regime, however, contested this “inflated” profit figure of the Indian Railways and termed it as a result of a change of accounting standards.
Interestingly, Kumar also co-authored a book named, “Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways Transformed Itself”.