Rakesh Garg in Mayaram, Takru, LC Goyal club; Loses telecom secretary's post; List of new secretaries

1980 BATCH UP cadre lAS Rakesh Garg, who will retire in November this year, has become the third union secretary serving in high-profile department to have been shifted out (or demoted?) to the ministry of minority affairs, in the last 20 months of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, the first two being 1978 batch IAS Arvind Mayaram (from finance secretary to secretary, minority affairs) and 1979 batch IAS Rajiv Takru (from revenue secretary to chairman, national commission for minorities). On the secretary-level reshuffle undertaken on Friday, Garg, a mechanical engineer-turned IAS, was shunted out of the high-profile ministry of telecom possibly because of…

his inability to check call drops, and also because the government spots a better candidate to handle the upcoming telecom auction which is likely to bring Rs 5 lakh crore to the coffer. In fact, JS Deepak who is Garg’s two batch junior from the same cadre, has an experience in designing and conducting the 3G and Wi-Max spectrum auctions that fetched the then UPA-II government whopping Rs 1,06,260 crore (USD 24.5 billion). In fact, it was the first time spectrum was auctioned in India in a transparent manner after the 2G fiasco. JS Deepak was the JS (joint secretary) then.

During the Modi regime, other high-profile bureaucrats who were removed from senior positions unexpectedly before their tenure ended, include the then foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, IFS, and two home secretaries— Anil Goswami and LC Goyal, both IAS. There were other transfers which could be termed demotion. For example, Lov Verma was the health secretary when he was transferred to the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities. Here are the key secretary-level appointments, as was announced on Friday.

1. JS Deepak, 1982 batch UP cadre IAS officer and secretary in the department of electronics and information technology under ministry of communications and  information and technology has been appointed as secretary in the department of telecommunications in place of  Rakesh Garg, 1980 batch UP cadre lAS on his appointment as secretary in the ministry of minority affairs.

2. Aruna Sharma, 1982 batch Madhya Pradesh lAS who was recently empaneled as union secretary, has been appointed as secretary in the department of information and technology.

3. Shobhana K Pattanayak, 1982 batch Karnataka cadre lAS, presently posted in his cadre, has been appointed as secretary in the department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare in place of Siraj Hussain, 1979 batch UP cadre lAS who has retired.

4. Avinash K Srivastava, 1982 batch UP cadre lAS and special secretary in the department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare, has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of food processing industries in place of Ranglal Jamuda, 1981 batch Odisha cadre lAS who has retired. 

5. Dr Krishan Kumar Jalan, 1982 batch Haryana cadre lAS, now Central Provident Fund Commissioner, has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises in place of Anup K Pujari, 1980 batch Karnataka cadre lAS who has retired.

6. Dr Vinod Agrawal, Jharkhand cadre lAS and secretary in National Commission for Scheduled Castes, has been appointed as secretary in the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities under the ministry of social justice and empowerment in place of Lov Verma, 1978 batch UP cadre lAS who has retired.

7. Dr Shyam S Agarwal,1980 batch Rajasthan cadre lAS and secretary in National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of tribal affairs in place of Arun Jha, 1981 batch Bihar cadre lAS on his appointment as secretary in National Commission for Scheduled Castes. 

8. Arun Jha, 1981 batch Bihar cadre lAS and secretary in the ministry of tribal affairs, has been appointed as secretary in National Commission for Scheduled Castes in place of Dr Vinod Agrawal, 1980 batch Jharkhand cadre lAS on his appointment as secretary in the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities under ministry of social justice and empowerment. 

9. Rakesh Garg, 1980 batch UP cadre IAS and secretary in the department of telecommunications, has been appointed as secretary, minority affairs in place of Amarendra Sinha, 1981 batch Uttarakhand cadre lAS who was holding additional charge of the post. 

10. Dr Shyam S Agarwal, 1980 batch Rajasthan cadre lAS officer who has been appointed as secretary in the ministry of tribal affairs, will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes for a period of three months or till the appointment of a regular incumbent to that post.