Appointment of top official in PMO cancelled in six days

The Appointments Committee of the cabinet Wednesday approved the cancellation of order of appointment of Rajiv Nayan Choubey as additional secretary, Prime Minister's Office (PMO), less than a week after he was appointed to the post.

Earlier additional secretary, power, Choubey was appointed June 12 to his new posting in the PMO.

No reason was given for cancellation of the appointment order of the 1981 batch Tamil Nadu cadre Indian Administrative Service official.

An official note said: "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the cancellation of order of appointment of Shri Rajiv Nayan Choubey, IAS(TN:81), Additional Secretary, Ministry of Power as Additional Secretary, Prime Minister's Office."

According to a site for central government bureaucrats, Choubey was to have been soon promoted as secretary to the prime minister.

His appointment in the PMO was believed then to have a "clear stamp of principal secretary to the prime minister Nripendra Misra".

Choubey had earlier worked as advisor in the telecom regulator TRAI between 2006 and 2009 when Misra was the chairman.

He was to replace 1983 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS Shatrughna Singh, who was an influential officer in former prime minister Manmohan Singh's PMO. Singh has been transferred to the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP).

Choubey, who hails from Bihar, is a post graduate in physics and economic social planning.

During the previous National Democratic Alliance regime, he was first appointed as director and then joint secretary in the ministry of finance.

Between 2010 and 2012, he became development commissioner (handlooms) under the textile ministry. In the next two years, he became director general, Hydrocarbons in the petroleum ministry before taking over as additional secretary in the power ministry February 2014.