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Senior bureaucrat rehabilitated

LUCKNOW: Senior bureaucrat Anis Ansari has been brought back as the Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) of Uttar Pradesh, the job he lost in March this year following complaints that he allowed a fashion show to be staged at his official residence here. The show was hosted by his fashion designer wife.

Before being “rehabilitated” as APC with the rank of Additional Chief Secretary, Mr. Ansari was Chairman of Administrative Tribunal-I and Vigilance Commission. He replaces V.K. Sharma, who has again become Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister with the additional charge of Information Technology and Electronics and Handicapped Welfare departments.

Following Mr. Ansari’s removal as APC in March, Mr. Sharma was appointed Principal Secretary (Finance) with the additional charge of APC. He assumed full charge as the APC when Anup Mishra took over as Principal Secretary (Finance) a couple of months ago.

Among several other transfers carried out by the Government now, the Principal Secretary for Agriculture, Agriculture Education and Training, Kapil Dev, has been shifted as Principal Secretary, Public Works Department (PWD). He is replaced by Sri Krishna, Principal Secretary, I.T. and Electronics.

Principal Secretary (Small Irrigation) Manoj Kumar now becomes Principal Secretary (Backward Classes Welfare Department).

Mr. Ansari’s re-appointment as APC has set a new convention in the State administration. A 1973 batch IAS officer, Mr. Ansari is one batch senior to the Chief Secretary, Atul Kumar Gupta, an officer of the 1974 batch. It has been a convention that the senior-most officer in the Secretariat is appointed the State Chief Secretary. Officers senior to the Chief Secretary are posted outside the Secretariat either as Chairman of the Board of Revenue or Adviser, Land Reforms, Chairman of Pradeshiya Industrial Corporation of U.P. (PICUP), Chairman of Administrative Tribunal and Vigilance Commission, or Director-General (Training). The post of Agriculture Production Commissioner is next only to that of the Chief Secretary in the Secretariat administration. He officiates as Chief Secretary in the absence of the incumbent.

Presently V.K. Malhotra of the 1971 batch is the Chairman of the Board of Revenue.

With Mr. Sharma’s return to the fifth floor of Lal Bahadur Shastri Annexe Bhawan here, the Chief Minister’s Office has five Principal Secretaries – V.K. Sharma, Vijay Shankar Pandey, who is also the Principal Secretary (Information) and Lucknow Division Commissioner, Ravindra Singh, J.N. Chamber and Net Ram. Arun Sinha, Navneet Sehgal, Kamran Rizvi and Vijay Singh are the four Secretaries posted in the Chief Minister’s Office.

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Senior bureaucrat rehabilitated

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