2 IAS officers senior to J&K’s new Chief Secretary transferred to Delhi

Two IAS officers serving in Jammu and Kashmir, who are senior to the newly appointed Chief Secretary Sajjan Singh Yadav, were on Tuesday transferred to Delhi with immediate effect.

The officers are Ashwani Kumar and Dr Ashish Chandra Verma.

Kumar is a 1992-batch IAS officer who was posted as Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Power Development Department. Verma is a 1994-batch officer who was posted here as Financial Commissioner (ACS), Agriculture Production Department.

Yadav is a 1995-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer.

Yadav taking charge as J&K Chief Secretary next month poses a peculiar conundrum, since at least half a dozen bureaucrats in the Union Territory’s top administrative echelons are his seniors or batchmates. Yadav succeeds outgoing CS Atal Dulloo.

Apart from Kumar and Verma, the four officers include Shaleen Kabra (1992 batch), Financial Commissioner, Jal Shakti Department; Dheeraj Gupta (1993 batch), posted as Additional CS to CM Omar Abdullah; and ACS-rank IAS officers Shailendra Kumar and Anil Kumar Singh, both from the 1995 batch. Shailendra Kumar is Financial Commissioner, Finance, and Singh is Financial Commissioner, PWD (R&B).