Secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle: Rajiv Gauba next Home Secretary

Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba was on Wednesday named as the next Home Secretary to succeed Rajiv Mehrishi, who completes his term on August 30.

Besides him, 16 new secretaries have been appointed to various central government departments as part of a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected today.

Gauba, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, will take over as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Union Home Ministry with immediate effect, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

He will take over as the home secretary from August 31, it said.

Gauba has served in the home ministry as joint and additional secretary where he looked after the crucial Naxal division.

Durga Shanker Mishra will replace Gauba as the Urban Development Secretary. He is now the Additional Secretary in the same ministry.

Culture Secretary N K Sinha will be the new Information and Broadcasting Secretary in place of Ajay Mittal, who has been moved as DoPT secretary. DoPT Secretary B P Sharma retires this month-end.

Senior bureaucrat Subhash C Garg, Executive Director in the World Bank, will be the new Department of Economic Affairs Secretary, a post that had fallen vacant after the retirement of Shaktikanta Das.

Aruna Sundararajan will be the new Telecom Secretary. She is at present the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

NHAI chief Yudhvir Singh Malik has been appointed the Road, Transport and Highways Secretary.