Sanjay Kothari made Kovind’s secy after bureaucratic rejig

NEW DELHI: In a major bureaucratic reshuffle of 40 senior and mid-level officers, chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) Sanjay Kothari has been made the secretary of President-elect Ramnath Kovind.

An lAS officer of 1978 batch of Haryana cadre, Kothari retired in June last year as the secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

Indian Forest Services officer of Gujarat cadre Bharat Lal has been appointed joint secretary to Kovind. Known to be close to PM Narendra Modi, Lal earlier served as resident commissioner of Gujarat Bhawan in New Delhi. Ashok Malik, a well-known columnist and distinguished fellow at Observer Research Foundation, will be the press secretary to the President.

The Modi-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved these postings to the office of the President for an initial period of two years.

The other appointments included Vasudha Mishra being made additional secretary, department of administrative reforms and public grievances in place of Usha Sharma, who was appointed ASI director general.

Sanjiv Gupta, 1985 batch lAS officer of Himachal Pradesh , has been appointed the CEO, National E-Governance Division (NeGD). Sunil Kumar, a 1987batch officer of UPbatch, was appointed as additional secretary in the same department.