Centre appoints SSC, UIDAI chiefs in major bureaucratic reorganization

The Central government on Tuesday, October 22 cleared appointments of several senior bureaucrats in multiple ministries and departments with Braj Raj Sharma and Pankaj Kumar being appointed chiefs of Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), respectively. The appointments were approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).

About Braj Raj Sharma and Pankaj Kumar

According to the official order, Braj Raj Sharma has been given the charge of SSC Chairman. Sharma is a 1984 batch IAS officer working as Secretary in the Home Ministry's Department of Border Management. The ACC has granted approval to appoint Pankaj Kumar, Additional Secretary in Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the CEO of UIDAI, which is entrusted with the task of issuing Aadhar card. Kumar has been temporarily upgraded to the post and will be on the rank and pay of Secretary, the appointment order stated.

Other major appointments

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) chairman Nagendra Nath Sinha, 1987 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS officer, has been given the charge of Secretary, Department of Border Management, which falls under the Home Ministry. Sanjeev Gupta, a 1985 batch IAS officer who is Special Secretary at Inter-State Council Secretariat under the Home Ministry, has been elevated to the post of Secretary. "The ACC also approved in-situ up-gradation of the IAS officers of the 1987 batch to the level of Special Secretary in the rank and pay of Secretary to the Central government, as a measure personal to them, by temporarily upgrading the posts held by them," added the order.

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Previously on October 9, the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet approved the empanelment of 41 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, most of them from the 1987 batch, for holding secretary-level and secretary equivalent-level posts at the Centre. Twenty-six officers, including 25 from the 1987 batch from different states including Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Manipur were empanelled for secretary-level posts. In a separate order, the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet (ACC) cleared the appointment of 32 IAS officers as additional secretaries to the Government of India. The list included the name of Debashree Mukherjee, a 1991 batch IAS officer in the Prime Minister’s Office and Supriya Sahu, a TN cadre officer from the same batch who served as Director-General of Doordarshan. 

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(With ANI inputs)