In first major Secretary-level shuffle by the Narendra Modi-government, Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram has been transfered out of the Finance Ministry to a low profile Tourism Ministry.
Mayaram, who was senior most among the four Secretaries in the Ministry of Finance with dual roles as finance and economic affairs secretary, was appointed by the previous government and has one-full year before he retires on October 31, 2015.
He has now been made the Tourism secretary.
He has been replaced by his batchmate from 1978-batch Rajiv Mehrishi, who currently is the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan. Mehrishi retires in August-end and will have just about 10 months at Ministry of Finance.
In all, 20 new appointments were made yesterday, one-third being at the Secretary level.
Anil Swarup, a 1981 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new Coal Secretary. Swarup, who is Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, has been Officer on Special Duty in the Ministry of Coal and will take over as Coal Secretary when incumbent S K Srivastava retires on October 31.
In orders issued yesterday, Mayaram, a 1978-batch IAS officer belonging to Rajasthan cadre, was made the Tourism Secretary in place of Parvez Dewan on his retirement at month end.
In his place, Rajiv Mehrishi, an IAS officer of the same batch as Mayaram and from the same state, was appointed Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.
Ministry of Finance has four secretaries - Economic Affairs, Expenditure, Revenue and Financial Services. The senior most among the four is designated Finance Secretary.
Presently, Ratan P Watal, a 1978 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh is Expenditure Secretary while 1980-batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre Gurdial Singh Sandhu is the Financial Services Secretary. Shaktikanta Das, an IAS officer of 1980 batch from Tamil Nadu cadre, is Revenue Secretary.
Mayaram's transfer was part of the first major Secretary- level reshuffle undertaken by the Modi government.
