Patna, Nov. 8: After a gap of almost two months, the Nitish Kumar government has reinstated the 1990-batch IAS officer K.K. Pathak, who was suddenly ousted from the post of principal excise secretary on September 11 this year.

Pathak, known to be the architect of prohibition laws of Bihar - dubbed as draconian by many - earned the wrath of the powers that be, when he openly expressed his unhappiness over action taken by the Nalanda administration against an excise official who arrested a JDU leader for being allegedly involved in the illegal trade.

The general administration department today notified the postings of 10 IAS officers. Nine of them were 2014-batch officers who are to take up their first posting after training.

Pathak, who had gone on long leave on health grounds declaring that he would not join until transferred, was made principal secretary of the revenue board - considered a shunting ground for "unwanted" senior officers. He was also made commissioner of departmental enquiries, another post reserved for officials the government does not want in the mainstream of the administration.

Earlier, he was made to wait two months for posting "having to report to the general administration department". In official gossips, it is called "corridor posting", as the officer is not even given a chamber to sit in.

"But Pathak has never been known to bend to political pressure. He has faced such situations before "abruptly being transferred from a key post to a less important post"," said a senior IAS officer. It was due to Pathak's efforts that prohibition was implemented with an iron hand. After his exit from the excise department, enforcement slowed down even as seizure of illegal liquor got larger and larger.

Apart from Pathak, the government has posted the fresh batch of IAS officers as deputy secretary in various departments.

Udita Singh has been posted in the energy department, Amit Kumar Pandey in panchayati raj, Sashank Subhankar in health, Roshan Kushwaha in education, Aditya Prakash in tourism, Abhilasha Kumar in planning, Yashpal Meena in rural works, Shyam Bihari Meena in rural development and Saurav Jorwal in the labour department.