Textiles Secretary Anant Kumar Singh shunted to Land Resources dept

Textiles Secretary Anant Kumar Singh was shunted to the Land Resources Department as part of a minor top-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected today.

Culture Secretary Raghvendra Singh would be new Textiles Secretary in place of Singh, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said.

Anant Kumar Singh, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was appointed secretary in the Ministry of Textiles, which was headed by Union minister Smriti Irani, in May last year.

He was appointed to post which became vacant after the superannuation of Dinesh Singh on June 30, the order said.

It was the second time that a textiles secretary was moved out of the ministry during Irani's tenure.

Senior bureaucrat and former textiles secretary Rashmi Verma was in May 2017 appointed as the tourism secretary.

Verma, a 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre and sister of Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, worked as textiles secretary during January 1, 2016 to May 10, 2017, according to her service records.

Irani was in July 2016 shifted from the key Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and given a less significant textiles portfolio after an expansion of the Union Council of Ministers and reshuffle.

Anant Kumar Singh had recently said that irregularities worth around Rs 200 crore were detected in the National Handloom Development Corporation (NHDC), a public sector undertaking under the Textiles Ministry.

The matter was referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as the central probe agency had expertise on such issues, he had said.

Senior IAS officer Arun Goel would be the new culture secretary in place of Raghvendra Singh. He is at present special secretary, Culture Ministry.