Delhi Principal Secretary (PWD) Ashwani Kumar, who has been at loggerheads with the AAP government on several issues, will be new chief secretary of Puducherry.
As part of a bureaucratic reshuffle, Puducherry's Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Parida and another senior officer G Narendra Kumar have been transferred to Delhi. Both are yet to be given any charge.
In the past, Parida, a 1986-batch IAS officer, and G Narendra Kumar have worked in the Delhi government when Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister.
According to the order of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi Services Secretary A Anbarasu was also transferred and posted in the Puducherry government.
The ministry has asked authorities concerned to relieve all these four officers with immediate effect.
"Ashwani Kumar, IAS, hereby transferred from GNCTD and posted as Chief Secretary, Puducherry," the ministry's order stated.
Kumar, a 1992-batch IAS officer, and the Arvind Kejriwal government has been at loggerheads on a range of issues including desilting of drains and PWD proposals among others.
He was also holding the charge of vigilance secretary in the Delhi government.
In June, Kejriwal had written to Chief Secretary M M Kutty, asking him to initiate proceedings of "dereliction of duty" against Kumar over desilting of drains.
In response, the PWD secretary had hit back and said, "negativity and squabbling attitude" does not work in such a challenging task.
A Delhi Assembly panel had also issued initiated "breach of privilege proceedings" against him, but he later got a stay from the high court.
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