Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Dev has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary in the Delhi government, according to an order of the Union Home Ministry.
Mr. Dev, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre, takes over from Anshu Prakash, a 1986-batch officer of the same cadre, the order issued on Thursday said.
Mr. Prakash, who had taken over as Delhi Chief Secretary on December 4, 2017, was transferred to the Union Department of Telecommunications as Additional Secretary last week. Mr. Dev had earlier been posted as adviser in the Chandigarh Union Territory administration.
During his tenure as Chief Secretary of less than a year, Mr. Prakash and the AAP dispensation have been at loggerheads over various issues.
In February, Mr. Prakash alleged that he had been assaulted by AAP MLAs at Arvind Kejriwal’s residence. This led to protests by the bureaucracy, which demanded an apology from Mr. Kejriwal. The Chief Minister and his party, however, have denied the incident.
The AAP-led committees in the Delhi Assembly have also had a thorny relationship with Mr. Prakash, who has challenged some of the proceedings in court.
Speaking on the transfer of Mr. Prakash, AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the elected government had not been consulted. He added that the BJP-ruled Centre had stopped consulting the government after a notification of the MHA in 2015 that said “services” would be under the L-G, not the elected government.
Published - November 24, 2018 01:49 am IST
