Babus rejig at Centre: Chandra Bhushan appointed Deputy EC

Senior bureaucrat Chandra Bhushan Kumar has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle effected today by the government.

A total of 13 officers have been appointed as joint secretaries in different central government departments.

Bhushan, a 1995 batch IAS officer of union territories cadre, has been appointed to the post for five years, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

S K Shahi and Krishna Bahadur Singh have been appointed as joint secretaries in Home Ministry. Shahi is a Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officer and Singh belongs to Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

IAS officer Vineet Joshi has been made Director General of the National Testing Agency under the Department of Higher Education, the order said.

Anurag Agarwal, at present working as Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, has been moved to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in the same capacity, it said.

Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey will be Joint Secretary in the Department of Revenue and Ravi Kota has been named JS, the Fifteenth Finance Commission.

IAS officer B Kishore, presently working as Joint Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, will be Joint Secretary in Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, the order said.

E Ramesh Kumar has been appointed in Kishore's place in the Animal Husbandry Department.

Samir Kumar and Nitishwar Kumar have been appointed joint secretaries in Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, it said.

Girish C Hosur, an IFoS officer, will be Joint Secretary in the Department of Higher Education. Mukul Ratra, a CSS officer, has been appointed as Deputy Director General, the Department of Telecommunications, the order added.