Nitish switching sides: 22 IAS, 45 Bihar officers transferred in major rejig

Patna: The Bihar government on Friday transferred 22 IAS officers, which included five district magistrates (DMs), as well as 45 officers from the Bihar Administrative Service (BAS).

According to a notification by the general administration department, Patna DM Chandrasekhar Singh, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has been transferred to the chief minister's secretariat as special secretary. Singh was recently in the news for his war of letters with the state education department over closure of schools in Patna in view of cold wave conditions.

Singh has been replaced by 2011-batch IAS officer Shirsat Kapil Ashok, who is currently the IG (prisons).

Naval Kishor Choudhary (2013-batch IAS officer), currently Gopalganj DM, is the new Bhagalpur DM.

Bhagalpur DM Subrat Kumar Sen (a 2013-batch IAS officer) has been appointed as Muzaffarpur DM.

Arvind Kumar Choudhary (1995-batch IAS officer), presently posted as principal secretary (finance), has been given additional charge of principal secretary (rural development department).

Senthil K Kumar (1996-batch IAS officer), principal secretary, home department, is the new principal secretary of planning department.

Safeena AN (1997-batch IAS officer), principal secretary, minorities welfare department, has been appointed as member, revenue board.

Similarly, 45 officers of Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) have also been assigned new postings.

On January 23, 29 senior IAS officers were assigned new posting in a major bureaucratic rejig.

"Transfers and postings made in the last few days were part of routine exercise," a senior GAD official said.