New Delhi: Effecting a major bureaucratic reshuffle, the Yogi government on Thursday transferred 16 senior IAS officers and allocated new responsibilities to ‘promoted’ officers while divested a few of the key portfolios.
The rejig comes a day after the retirement of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avnish Awasthi, also a close aide of CM Yogi who maintained a strict protocol of meeting deadlines in his department.
Among the bunch of bureaucrats entrusted with responsibilities, Sanjay Prasad is the key person & also new ‘most powerful’ bureaucrat in Yogi govt. He has been given charge of all the departments held by Awasthi. Apart from charges of these departments, he has got the most crucial role as — Principal Secretary to CM Yogi.
Navneet Sehgal appears to be the biggest loser in bureaucratic reshuffle. Serving as Additional Chief Secretary, Sehgal was overseeing Information department but now has been moved to Sports.
Sanjay Prasad’s elevation as the Principal Secretary to CM and also being entrusted with all the departments that the erstwhile ‘powerful’ bureaucrat had, proves his stature in the UP bureaucratic ladder. Prasad is understood to be in good books of the Chief Minister and someone who enjoys his full confidence.
The allocation of key portfolios like Home and Information department, apart from his all-important position as Principal Secretary proves that he is the ‘man in command’ and someone who will have unfettered access to govt’s ‘inner ring’.
In his previous roles, Prasad has served as the District Magistrate (DM) of many districts like Faizabad, Agra, Firozabad, Bahraich, Lakhimpur Kheri and Maharajganj. He was also the Gorakhpur Chief Development Officer in 1999-2001 and probably it was that time he came in contact with the then MP Yogi Adityanth.
Sanjay Prasad earned applause from various quarters during the Corona crisis as it was under his supervision, the state government launched a sturdy & robust campaign against Covid-19 and also earned global attention. It was in 2019 that he came from Central deputation to state and supervised UP’s corona containment plan.
