The Telegraph report of a possible transfer of IAS, IPS officers on September 23

Patna, Sept. 27: Responding to the Election Commission’s (EC’s) directive on the day of formal notification of the first phase of Assembly polls in Bihar, the state government today transferred five IAS and 10 IPS officers.

The EC had asked the state government to shift the officers following the Opposition parties’ memorandum to the chief election commissioner, S. Y. Quraishi, questioning their “integrity”. All those transferred were field officials involved in electoral exercises.

The government today appointed new district magistrates in five districts, including West Champaran, Munger, Vaishali, Saran and Lakhisarai. The agriculture department director, B. Rajendra, will replace Devraj Deo as West Champaran district magistrate.

The director of mid-day meal Prem Singh Meena will be the district magistrate of Munger. He will take over from Abhijeet Sinha.

Devraj and Abhijeet are the officers of Tamil Nadu and Nagaland cadres. They are on deputation in Bihar.

Sridhar Chiruvelu, so far serving as the Patna Municipal Corporation commissioner will take over the charge of Vaishali district magistrate from Minhaj Alam. A 1996 Kerala cadre IAS officer, Chiruvelu has been serving in the state on deputation.

Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation chairman and 2005 batch IAS officer Kuldeep Narayan would be the new district magistrate of Saran. He will replace Pankaj Kumar Pal, a 2002 batch IAS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre.

The joint secretary of transport department, Divesh Sehra, will be the district magistrate of Lakhisarai in place of Manish Kumar.

The art and culture department secretary Vivek Kumar Singh has been named the divisional commissioner of Magadh. He will replace K.P. Ramaiah, who has been asked to report to the general administration department with the recalled district magistrates.

Similarly, the state home department today transferred 10 IPS officers.

Praveen Vashishta has been named the new inspector-general of Muzaffarpur zone, replacing Gupteshwar Pandey, who has been sent to the state police headquarters. Vashishta was posted as inspector-general in the criminal investigation department.

Deputy inspector-general of Bettiah range Umesh Kumar has been replaced by Anumpama S Nilekar, till now serving the special branch at the state police headquarters. Kumar, a Karnataka batch IPS officer, is a relative of BJP leader Ganga Prasad.

Ajitabh Kumar will be the new superintendent of police (SP) of Madhubani while outgoing Madhubani SP Saurav Kumar has been asked to report to the state police headquarters.

Pankaj Kumar Raj, SP, Rail, Patna, has been made the SP of Kishanganj. Naugachhia SP Mithu Prasad will be replaced by Vivek Kumar.