New Delhi, June 29: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh carried out his first bureaucratic reshuffle today, moving around as many as 23 top officials but resisted the temptation to penalise those appointed to important posts by the previous regime.

Disinvestment secretary Dhirendra Singh will be the next home secretary and Ajai Vikram Singh the defence secretary. But Anil Baijal and Ajai Prasad, who were appointed to these posts by the last government, have not been left without a posting, as proposed initially.

In the home ministry, Dhirendra Singh will be assisted by A.K. Rastogi, who will take charge as secretary, border management. He was earlier posted in the home ministry’s Inter-state Council.

Ajai Vikram Singh returns to the defence ministry after almost two years. He was posted out of the ministry when he was a special secretary and appointed revenue secretary in the finance ministry.

Singh, however, sought a transfer on health grounds and was appointed secretary in the ministry of road transport and highways. He will be replaced by Dhanendra Kumar, who currently holds charge as culture secretary.

Sources suggested the appointments were delayed — the orders were expected on Monday — after the Prime Minister decided to make changes to the list, setting off a chain reaction that is bound to upset calculations of many bureaucrats.

Like R. Poornalingam, who had almost made it as the petroleum secretary. He will now be the disinvestment secretary. Or family welfare secretary P.K. Hota, who was all prepared to return to Nirman Bhavan as urban development secretary where he had done a stint as additional secretary, and A. Das Gupta, who was to be posted as secretary in the department of employment and poverty alleviation. Das Gupta will now hold charge as secretary in the department of official languages.

In the fresh list finalised this morning, Ajai Prasad has been appointed secretary of civil aviation and Anil Baijal of urban development. Prasad’s wife, Sarita, has been appointed secretary in the department of social justice and empowerment. She replaces B.S. Baswan who has been sent as higher education secretary.

The higher education secretary in the human resource development ministry, Sushil Chand Tripathi, has been appointed petroleum secretary.

In other changes, A.. Tiwari takes over as secretary in the department of personnel and training, where Badal K. Das moves in as establishment officer in place of Champak Chatterjee place who goes to the agriculture ministry.

In an unusual move, commerce secretary Dipak Chatterjee, on extension, gets additional charge as textiles secretary.