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35 Raj IAS to sit at Sampark helpline call centre to take public grievance calls

By
LO Bureau
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35 IAS to sit at govt call centre

In an unusual development, 35 senior IAS officers in Rajasthan have been asked to man the government’s helpline call center and take at least 10 calls every day to ensure timely disposal of public grievances. The aim of this move is to bring in accountability among bureaucrats and ensure speedy resolution of public grievances.

According to the orders issued by Chief Secretary V. Shrinivas (IAS:1989:RJ), these 35 IAS officers manning the call centre will be from the Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) ranks. They have been asked to sit at the Rajasthan Sampark Helpline 181 call center in the Secretariat on their assigned days and take at least 10 calls daily, listening to citizens’ complaints and, as far as possible, ensuring on-the-spot resolution of their grievances.

Besides, these officials will also be reviewing the average disposal time of grievances, long-pending complaints, grievances with low satisfaction levels, and the categories of grievances received at the helpline. These officers have to submit their visit report to the Chief Secretary’s office as well.

This decision was taken after the state Chief Minister, Bhajan Lal Sharma, was seen regularly visiting the 181 call center, personally taking calls from citizens and listening to their grievances for some time. The CM has also been holding continuous public hearings at his residence, focusing on resolving the problems of common people.

The Rajasthan Sampark is an online grievance redress portal and helpline of the state government where citizens are supposed to register their complaints, following which they are given a unique number through SMS in order to enable them to track the status of their complaints.

PESB Recommends Shailesh Vagerwal as CMD of Bharat Dynamics Limited

By
LO Bureau
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In a significant development, the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has recommended Shailesh Vagerwal for appointment as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

The recommendation was made following interviews conducted by the Board on February 21, 2026.

Shailesh Vagerwal is currently serving as Chief General Manager at Munitions India Limited. His name will now be forwarded to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) for final approval, subject to vigilance clearance and completion of other prescribed formalities.

The vacancy is scheduled to arise on May 1, 2026, upon the superannuation of Commodore A. Madhavarao (Retd.), the incumbent CMD. In view of the impending vacancy, PESB had invited applications on October 23, 2025, with November 13, 2025 fixed as the last date for submission through its portal.

After scrutiny of applications, the Board shortlisted nine candidates for interview. Those interviewed were:

  1. Commodore Neeraj Uday, General Manager (GM HSS & SED), Electronics Corporation of India Limited
  2. Santosh Kumar, General Manager (Vande Bharat – Production & Maintenance), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
  3. Abhitabh Nath Rawal, Additional General Manager, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
  4. Shailesh Vagerwal, Chief General Manager, Munitions India Limited
  5. Sanjeev Kumar Agrawal, Chief General Manager, Department of Defence Production
  6. Babji Patchilla, General Manager, Ministry of Defence
  7. Surendra Kumar, General Manager/AVNL CO, Chennai, Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited
  8. Amit Singh, Chief General Manager, OEF Hazratpur, Firozabad, a unit of TCL under MoD, Troop Comforts Limited
  9. Utapaal Srivastav, General Manager, Ministry of Defence

Sanjiv Shankar repatriated to parent cadre ahead of tenure completion

By
LO Bureau
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Sanjiv Shankar IRS

Sanjiv Shankar (IRS-IT:1993), Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, has been prematurely repatriated to his parent cadre.

According to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Friday (February 20, 2026), the competent authority has approved his premature repatriation to enable him to avail the benefit of promotion in his cadre.

Shankar has been serving as Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution since April 2025. Prior to this assignment, he was posted as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

He had been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for a five-year tenure, and his central deputation was originally scheduled to conclude in May 2026.

UPSC initiates process for appointment of full-time DGP in Telangana

By
LO Bureau
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Telangana

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has begun the process to appoint a regular Director General of Police (DGP) in Telangana. It has written to the state government to send a panel of eligible DGP-rank officers.

This comes weeks after a Supreme Court order dated February 5, 2026. The court directed the UPSC to finish the selection process within four weeks. Sources said the UPSC has asked the state to treat February 5 as the date of vacancy while preparing the panel.

This has sparked discussion in the state police department. The current in-charge DGP, B Shivadhar Reddy (IPS:1994:TG), will retire on April 30. If February 5 is treated as the vacancy date, the eligibility rule becomes important.

As per the Supreme Court’s guidelines in the Prakash Singh case, an officer must have at least six months of service left from the date of vacancy to be considered for DGP. Since Reddy retires on April 30, he may not meet this condition if February 5 is taken as the vacancy date. It is still not clear if his name will be sent to the UPSC.

The state has been asked to send the names of eligible officers soon. The UPSC will review the list and then shortlist three names based on merit.

Telangana has six DGP-rank officers at present — CV Anand (IPS:1991:TG), B Shivadhar Reddy (IPS:1994:TG), Apte Vinayak Prabhakar (IPS:1994:TG), Sowmya Mishra (IPS:1994:TG), Shikha Goel (IPS:1994:TG) and Abhilasha Bisht (IPS:1994:TG).

The court’s order is meant to ensure that states appoint regular DGPs and not keep in-charge officers, as directed in the Prakash Singh judgment.

The UPSC also sent similar letters to nine other states. These states had not complied with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Prakash Singh case. Instead, they had appointed in-charge DGP’s instead of regular DGPs under the prescribed guidelines.

CRPF IG Amitendra Nath Sinha honoured with President’s Medal for Distinguished Service

By
LO Bureau
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Amitendra Nath Sinha IPS

Inspector General Amitendra Nath Sinha (IPS:2002:OR) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was honoured with the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service at a Director General’s Parade held in Guwahati on Thursday (February 19, 2026). Sinha is currently posted in Odisha.

The award was announced on Republic Day. It has been given to him for his long and dedicated service, leadership and work in the field of national security.

The Police Medal for Meritorious Service is given to police personnel for devoted and valuable service. It usually requires at least 15 years of service and a strong service record rated from “Very Good” to “Outstanding” in Annual Confidential Reports. The medal is announced on Republic Day and Independence Day every year.

Sinha is a 2002-batch IPS officer of the Odisha cadre. He joined the service after clearing the UPSC Civil Services Examination. In Odisha Police, he handled several key assignments related to law and order, crime and intelligence.

He went on central deputation to the CRPF in June 2023 as Inspector General. He took charge of operations in the Odisha sector. The sector has six General Duty battalions and one CoBRA battalion involved in anti-Naxal operations. It also includes ten other battalions and two operational ranges. CRPF units are deployed for counter-insurgency and law and order duties in the state.

As IG, Sinha looks after operations, training, force readiness and coordination with the state police.

HC asks petitioner how he is aggrieved by IPS appointments to IAS-cadre posts

By
LO Bureau
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Telangana CS Ramakrishna Rao

In a bizarre case of misactivism, an advocate moved the Telangana High Court challenging the appointment of IPS officers to posts traditionally held by IAS officers. The High Court questioned the petitioner’s locus standi and asked him how he was personally aggrieved by these appointments.

Justice EV Venugopal on Friday directed the petitioner, advocate Vadla Srikanth, to implead any affected persons, if any. The court adjourned the matter to April 15 for further hearing.

Srikanth’s petition virtually challenges a Sept 2025 Telangana govt order appointing senior IPS officers to key administrative posts: Stephen Ravindra (IPS:1999:TG) as Commissioner of Civil Supplies and ex-officio Principal Secretary to the govt., Shikha Goel (IPS:1994:TG) as Director General, Vigilance and Enforcement, and ex-officio Principal Secretary, and CV Anand (IPS:1991:TG) as Special Chief Secretary, Home Department.

In an earlier hearing, Justice Surepally Nanda had issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of the General Administration Department (GAD), directing them to respond to the petition.

The petitioner has contended that these appointments violate the IAS (Cadre) Rules and IAS (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Amendment Regulations, 2016, while seeking directions to the state govt to remove the IPS officers and fill the posts with IAS officers.

Former Punjab CS Vijay Janjua to finally face prosecution in 17-year-old graft case

By
LO Bureau
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Ex-Punjab CS Vijay Janjua

Law takes its own course, indeed. That is why former Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua (IAS:1989:PB) is finally going to face prosecution after a long legal sea-saw in a 17-year-old corruption case. The Union Government granted prosecution sanction against him recently, within just three months after the Punjab govt forwarded the case to it following a stern directive from the High Court.

Janjua retired in 2023 but was rehabilitated as the chairman of the Punjab Transparency and Accountability Commission by the Bhagwant Mann govt.

Though Janjua is not the first Chief Secretary of the state to face corruption allegations, he managed to rise to the top post despite a pending vigilance case.

It was in 2009 when the Punjab Vigilance Bureau caught him allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹2 lakh from a Ludhiana-based industrialist. He was then posted as Director of Industries and Commerce under the Punjab govt.

The then Punjab Governor, Shivraj Patil, initially granted sanction to prosecute him in 2010, but a trial court later discharged him on the ground that it was the Centre, not the state, that was the competent authority to sanction the prosecution of an IAS officer. A subsequent request made to the Centre in 2014 was inexplicably withdrawn by the then Congress government in the state in March 2018.

But the tide turned in 2025 when the Punjab and Haryana High Court imposed a penalty of ₹50,000 on the state for failing to submit the case to the Centre for prosecution and asked it to do it immediately.

Following this stern directive, the state government forwarded the file to the Centre on November 28, 2025, leading to the Union Govt granting its sanction to prosecute Janjua.

Home Ministry declares Indian currency-maker PSU’s Delhi Headquarters ‘prohibited place’

By
LO Bureau
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Ministry of Home Affairs

In a significant and sensible decision, the Union Home Ministry has declared the Indian currency-maker, Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL)’s headquarters in New Delhi, as a “prohibited place.” It has been done under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, keeping in mind the highly sensitive nature of work that the SPMCIL is engaged in.

The SPMCIL’s headquarters is located in Tower-G of the World Trade Centre in New Delhi’s Nauroji Nagar. Under the Official Secrets Act, areas designated as prohibited places are subject to enhanced security restrictions.

It is worth mentioning here that the SPMCIL is a Miniratna category I Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the administrative control of the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance. It plays a highly sensitive role in the national economy by being responsible for the manufacture and production of currency and banknotes, security paper, non-judicial stamp papers, postal stamps and stationery, travel documents such as passports and visas, security certificates, cheques, bonds, warrants, special certificates with security features, security inks, circulation and commemorative coins, medallions, refining of gold and silver, and assay of precious metals.

The SPMCIL was incorporated on January 13, 2006, and was assigned the responsibility of the management, control, maintenance, and operations of the erstwhile nine production units under the Currency and Coinage Division of the Economic Affairs Department with effect from February 10, 2006. The nine production units comprise four Central Government mints, two currency note presses, two security printing presses and one security paper mill.

As per the Act, the ‘prohibited place’ means complete restrictions on unauthorised access, photography, sketching, or collection of information. Any breach can attract penal provisions under the Act. The move is aimed at strengthening security measures around sensitive government establishments dealing with strategic and high-security operations.

By issuing a notification to this effect on February 18, the Internal Security-I Division of the Home Ministry exercised powers under sub-clause (c) of clause (8) of section 2 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. The order supersedes an earlier notification dated February 15, 2022, except for actions already taken under the previous notification.

The notification says that the decision was taken considering that information related to the premises, or any damage thereto, could be useful to an enemy. The government stated that it is expedient to take precautions to prevent the entry of unauthorised persons into the premises.

Renowned IAS Supriya Sahu summoned by Madras HC to explain delay in releasing funds for forests

By
LO Bureau
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IAS Supriya Sahu

A UN award-winning Tamil Nadu bureaucrat, Supriya Sahu (IAS:1991:TN), has been asked by the Madras High Court to appear before it on February 27 and explain the delay in releasing funds for maintenance of forest areas cleared of invasive species. Sahu, who won the “Champions of the Earth” award in 2025 from the United Nations for forest conservation, is currently posted as Additional Chief Secretary of the Environment, Climate Change, and Forests department of the Tamil Nadu government.

The bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy issued the direction recently. The cases relate to the removal of prosopis juliflora and other invasive species from forests. The direction was issued after the court was informed that Rs 81.78 crore was yet to be released for maintenance of forest areas where such species were rooted out.

The HC bench ruled that the maintenance work should be done periodically so that complete removal of the invasive species can be achieved.

The bench observed that if the maintenance is not done properly, the invasive species will come up again and defeat the purpose of the project that aims to remove them completely.

The court also noted in its order that unless the amount is released by the government forthwith, the very object of the exercise will get derailed. Hence, the court summoned the Additional Chief Secretary of the forest department to be present in the court on the next hearing scheduled for Feb 27.

J&K govt orders major bureaucratic reshuffle; 22 IAS/JKAS officers transferred

By
LO Bureau
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Government of Jammu & Kashmir

The Jammu & Kashmir Government on Friday (February 20, 2026) ordered a major administrative reshuffle involving 20 IAS and 2 JKAS officers with immediate effect.

The transfers and postings are as follows:

  1. Ashwani Kumar (IAS:1992:AGMUT), awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Power Development Department with additional charge of Administrative Secretary, Mining Department.
  2. Dr Ashish Chandra Verma (IAS:1994:AGMUT), Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Tourism Department, has been given additional charge of Administrative Secretary, Agriculture Production Department.
  3. Shailendra Kumar (IAS:1995:AGMUT), Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Agriculture Production Department, has been transferred and posted as Financial Commissioner (Additional Chief Secretary), Finance Department.
  4. M Raju (IAS:2005:AGMUT), Commissioner/Secretary, General Administration Department, has been given additional charge of Administrative Secretary, Health & Medical Education Department.
  5. R Alice Vaz (IAS:2005:AGMUT), awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Commissioner/Secretary, Planning, Development and Monitoring Department with additional charge of Administrative Secretary, Information Department.
  6. Yasha Mudgal (IAS:2007:AGMUT), Commissioner/Secretary, Youth Services and Sports Department, has been transferred and posted as Commissioner/Secretary, Cooperatives Department.
  7. Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary (IAS:2009:AGMUT), Commissioner/Secretary, Science and Technology Department, has been transferred and posted as Commissioner/Secretary, Youth Services and Sports Department.
  8. Dr Piyush Singla (IAS:2012:AGMUT), Secretary, Information Technology Department, has been given additional charge of Administrative Secretary, Public Grievances Department.
  9. Babila Rakwal (JKAS), Commissioner/Secretary, Cooperatives Department, has been transferred and posted as Commissioner/Secretary, Science and Technology Department.
  10. Anjali Sehrawat (IAS:2013:AGMUT), awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Mission Director, Jal Jeevan Mission.
  11. Nidhi Malik (IAS:2013:AGMUT), Deputy Commissioner, Reasi, has been transferred and posted as Inspector General of Registration, J&K.
  12. Owais Ahmed (IAS:2014:AGMUT), Director, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Kashmir, has been transferred and posted as Director, Skill Development, J&K. He will continue to hold additional charge of Special Secretary, Planning, Development and Monitoring Department.
  13. Dr Sagar D Dattatray (IAS:2014:AGMUT), awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Director, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Kashmir.
  14. Athar Aamir Ul Shafi Khan (IAS:2016:RJ), Deputy Commissioner, Kulgam, has been transferred and posted as Deputy Commissioner, Budgam.
  15. Kumar Abhishek (IAS:2016:AGMUT), awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Deputy Commissioner, Reasi.
  16. Akriti Sagar (IAS:2016:AGMUT), awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Managing Director, National Health Mission, J&K with additional charge of Special Secretary, Health & Medical Education Department.
  17. Dr Bilal Mohiud Din Bhat (IAS:2017:AGMUT), Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, has been transferred and posted as Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag.
  18. Minga Sherpa (IAS:2017:AGMUT), Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, has been transferred and posted as Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur.
  19. Syed Fakhrudin Hamid (IAS:2017:AGMUT), Deputy Commissioner, Anantnag, has been transferred and posted as Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla.
  20. Harvinder Singh (IAS:2019:AGMUT), Deputy Commissioner, Doda, has been transferred and posted as Director, Employment, J&K. He will also hold charge of Chief Executive Officer, Mission Youth and Mission Director, Mission YUVA.
  21. Shahzad Alam (IAS:2019:AGMUT), Director, Employment, J&K, has been transferred and posted as Deputy Commissioner, Kulgam.
  22. Krishan Lal (JKAS), Special Secretary, LG Secretariat, has been transferred as Deputy Commissioner, Doda.

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