New Delhi: Brahm Dutt, who retired as joint secretary in the Lok Sabha Secretariat, has been appointed as private secretary to Rao Inderjit Singh, MoS (Independent charge) for planning, statistics and programme implementation. Mr Singh is also minister of state for defence.
It is for the first time that a private person, Brahm Dutt was appointed as PS to a minister in the new government. The DoPT has asked all ministries to take prior approval of ACC before appointing PS and OSD to a minister.
In a related development, the Centre has also asked all its ministers not to appoint officials who had served in key positions in the erstwhile UPA government as former ministers’ personal staff.
This comes after a recent controversy over appointment of private secretaries to three Union ministers, including home minister Rajnath Singh. Mr Singh had proposed the name of IPS officer Alok Singh, who had served in the same capacity to the UPA’s external affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
