Govt appoints aides to 3 Union ministers including Goyal

The government on Tuesday appointed aides to three Union ministers, including Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the appointment of Raghuraj Rajendran, a 2004-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, as private secretary to Pradhan, the Minister for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel.

It curtailed the tenure of Rajendran as senior deputy director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, the alma mater of IAS officers.

He has been appointed for a tenure up to November 30, 2022.

The government approved the proposal for appointment of Satya Pal Bhatia, a retired DANICS-cadre officer, as assistant PS of Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on a co-terminus basis.

The appointments committee also approved the appointment on contract basis of Anuj Gupta, a private person, as Officer on Special Duty to Minister for Railways and Commerce and Industry Goyal in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade at the level of director for a tenure up to January 31, 2021.