Three days after Congress' Kamal Nath took oath as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, in a major reshuffle, 48 IAS officers, including 24 district collectors, have been moved from their current posts.
Senior officer Manoj Shrivastava, who was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Sanchi University on Wednesday, has been shifted from important departments, including commercial tax, to animal husbandry department as the additional chief secretary. He will have additional charge as the chairman of the Professional Examination Board (PEB) or Vyapam.
Sources say he paid the price for being seen as close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP.
Manu Shrivasatava, principal secretary new and renewable energy, has been given charge of the commercial tax department.
As part of the reshuffle, collectors of 24 districts, were also moved. While collectors of Indore, Dhar, Ratlam and Katni were retained, Rewa collector Preeti Maithil has been transferred to Sagar.
Earlier this month, before the state went to polls, Priti Maithil had allegedly asked a security official posted outside a strong room, where EVMs are kept, to "shoot" anyone who tries to breach the three-tier security ring.
Tarun Pithode, collector of Sehore, the hometown of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was shifted to Betul.
Bharat Yadav has been made Gwalior collector, while Shrinivas Sharma has been sent to Chhindwara. Priyanka Das has been shifted from Hoshangabad to Morena, Ashish Saxena has replaced her.
The new chief minister, however, retained Ashok Barnwal -- the 1991-batch officer who was the principal secretary of former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan -- in the same role.
P Narhari was also retained as commissioner-cum-secretary of the public relations department and managing director of Madhyam, official sources said.
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