Kolkata, May 22 (IANS) The new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled West Bengal government has carried out a major bureaucratic reshuffle in the state, transferring as many as 17 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers at one go.

As per the order issued by the state Personnel & Administrative Reforms Department, a copy of which is available with IANS, the 17 transferred IAS officers include departmental secretaries, municipal commissioners and additional district magistrates.

Sources in the state secretariat at Nabanna said the transfers have been ordered to add pace to the general administrative functioning and to strengthen district-level administrative activities.

As per the notification, Sujoy Sarkar, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has been transferred from the Commissioner of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and posted as the Commissioner of the state Textiles & Sericulture Department and the managing director of state-run entity, Tantuja.

Sarkar has been replaced by Ravi Agarwal, a 2017-batch IAS officer who was currently posted as the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of tribal-dominated Purulia district.

Similarly, Hindole Dutta, a 2014-batch IAS officer who had been serving as an associate professor in Netaji Subhash Administrative Training Institute, has been made the new Commissioner of Asansol Municipal Corporation.

The current Chief Executive Officer of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority, Nitin Singhani, a 2013-batch IAS officer, has been transferred as the senior special secretary to the state home and hill affairs secretary, with additional charges of member secretary of the Centre of Excellence in Public Management as well as the course director of Satyendranath Tagore Civil Services Study Centre.

The ADM of Malda, Shaikh Ansar Ahmad, a 2016-batch IAS officer, has been transferred as the Additional District Magistrate of West Midnapore.

The 2013-batch IAS officer, Rajat Nanda, has been given additional charge of joint secretary, cabinet secretariat and director of the state information and cultural affairs department in addition to his current charge with the personnel & administrative reforms department.

The 2016 batch IAS, Dhiman Barai, has been transferred from the post of additional district magistrate of East Burdwan and posted as special secretary to the state Department of Technical Education, Training & Skill Development

On the other hand, Priyadarshini S., a 2017-batch IAS officer currently serving as an ADM of Howrah, has been transferred and posted as special secretary to the state Consumer Affairs Department.

South 24 Parganas ADM Prashant Raj Shukla, a 2017-batch IAS officer, has been sent to Bankura as the ADM. The North Dinajpur Additional District Magistrate Suman Saurabh Mohanti, also a 2017-batch IAS officer, has been sent to West Burdwan in the same rank.

Similarly, Rajesh, also a 2017- batch IAS officer, has been transferred from the position of additional district magistrate of South Dinajpur to the position of ADM of Jalpaiguri.

The 2018-batch IAS officer, Lakshmana Perumal R. from Bankura, has been transferred as ADM of Jhargram.

Jalpaiguri’s ADM Sinjan Shekhar, also a 2018-batch IAS officer, has been sent to Howrah in the same rank, and Nadia ADM Archana P. Wankhede, a 2019-batch IAS officer, has been sent to East Midnapore in the same rank.

Manjeet Kumar Yadav has been transferred from Bankura to South 24 Parganas, Saurav Pandey from North Dinajpur to West Midnapore and Ekam J. Singh from West Midnapore to Bankura. All three are 2020-batch IAS officers, and in the rank of ADMs.

–IANS

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