While the whole country was celebrating Republic Day, Bihar government transferred 22 senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 79 Indian Police Service (IPS), and 45 Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) officers. These included five District Magistrates (DMs) and 17 Superintendents of Police (SPs).
Patna DM Chandrasekhar Singh, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has been appointed as Special Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Mr. Singh recently hit headlines for his public spat with the state education department regarding the closure of schools in Patna due to cold wave conditions. (Please see details in the appended GO)
Mr. Singh has been replaced by Mr. Shirsat Kapil Ashok, a 2011-batch IAS officer, who so far had been working as the IG prisons.
Gopalganj DM Naval Kishor Choudhary, a 2013-batch IAS officer, has been made Bhagalpur DM. Subrat Kumar Sen, the incumbent Bhagalpur DM, has been transferred to Muzaffarpur in the same capacity.
Principal Secretary, Finance, Arvind Kumar Choudhary, a 1995-batch IAS officer, has been given the additional responsibility of Principal Secretary of the Rural Development department.
Principal Secretary, Home Department, Senthil K Kumar, a 1996-batch IAS officer, will now be the Principal Secretary of Planning Department.
Principal Secretary, of Minorities Welfare department, Safeena AN, a 1997-batch IAS officer, has been appointed as Member of Revenue Board.
The Home Ministry also issued a notification announcing the transfer of 79 IPS officers, including 17 SPs posted in various districts.
Additional Director General (Operations) of the Special Task Force (STF), Sushil Mansingh Khopde, a 1995-batch IPS officer, has been transferred as ADG Prohibition. Amrit Raj, a 1998-batch IPS officer presently working as ADG Prohibition, will take over as ADG Operations.
Among the SPs, Deepak Ranjan, a 2012-batch IPS officer currently posted in Jehanabad, has been transferred as the Commandant of the Bihar Special Armed Police (BAP) in Bodh Gaya.
SP Naugachia Sushant Kumar Saroj will now serve as SP Bagaha, while SP Araria Ashok Kumar Singh has been appointed as Commandant of the Bihar Special Armed Police (BAP) in Sasaram.
SP Siwan Shailesh Kumar Sinha has been posted as Commandant of the Bihar Special Armed Police (BSAP) in Patna, and SP Saharasha Upendra Nath Verma will be the new Purnea SP.
Amitesh Kumar, the present SP of Khagaria, has been transferred to Siwan in the same capacity.
(Please see details in the appended GO)
A senior official from the General Administration Department (GAD) clarified that the transfers and postings made in the past few days are part of a routine exercise. On January 23, the government had transferred 29 senior IAS officers in a major bureaucratic rejig.
