New appointments and major reshuffle of government officials of Central secretaries

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday ordered a major reshuffle of Central secretaries, with 17 new appointments, including 16 new secretaries. There were some new appointments as well on promotion, with some officials retiring.

Senior IAS officer R.N. Choubey will be civil aviation secretary, replacing V. Somasundaran, who will now be the secretary in the ministry of women and child development.

P.K. Pujari will be the new power secretary, replacing P.K. Sinha, who will take over as Cabinet Secretary later this month.

Mr Choubey, currently special secretary in the ministry of power, belongs to the 1981 batch of the IAS and is from the Tamil Nadu cadre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently held another round of teleconferencing with Central secretaries, at which the progress on various development parameters and projects is learnt to have figured. The Modi government is keeping a close watch on the performance of top bureaucrats.

In other new appointments, special secretary in the communications ministry Rita Teaotia will be the new commerce secretary. DDA vice-chairman Balvender Kumar will be secretary in the ministry of mines.

C.R. Viswanath will be the new secretary in the department of consumer affairs.