Patna, May 11: About one-and-a-half months after he was shunted to the state planning board, the state government yesterday appointed IAS officer Kuldip Narayan as director in the panchayati raj department.

Narayan's tenure as Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner had remained mired in controversy and the previous Jitan Ram Manjhi government initiated departmental proceedings against him after placing him under suspension.

Kuldip's new assignment in the panchayati raj department assumes significance in the wake of chief minister Nitish Kumar's announcement at a meeting in Madhubani district about two months ago that the government was committed to strengthening the panchayati raj institutions and making every effort to empower their representatives. A source said Nitish had even advocated taxation powers to the panchayats at the meeting.

"Nitish has shifted young IAS officer Kuldip to the panchayati raj department from the state planning board, considered by bureaucrats to be a 'dumping ground', with an eye set on the Assembly elections due to be held in October-November this year. He (Nitish) is aware that Kuldip is an honest and no-nonsense officer, who can deliver in a stipulated period. The representatives of the panchayats have a significant role to play in the Assembly polls," said a JDU leader who didn't wish to be named.

To buttress his point, the leader said Nitish had kept himself aloof and didn't intervene when then urban development minister Samrat Choudhary and Narayan were engaged in a verbal duel. "It was Nitish who had appointed Narayan PMC commissioner. He took on the mighty building mafia in the capital," he added.

Narayan is among the 12 IAS officers who were transferred late on Sunday night. The government also shifted the divisional commissioners of Patna, Darbhanga, Munger, Saran, Kosi and Gaya. B Pradhan has joined as the new Patna divisional commissioner replacing ELNS Bala Prasad, who has been shifted to the science and technology department as principal secretary.

Pradhan earlier held the post of principal secretary in the backward and extreme backward classes welfare department, with additional charge of principal secretary, cabinet coordination department, and member-secretary of the state advisory board. Magadh divisional commissioner R.K. Khandelwal and his Darbhanga counterpart Vandana Kinni would swap places.

Lian Kunga, who was posted in the state planning board, has been asked to assume charge as Munger divisional commissioner, replacing Sunil Kumar Singh, who has been shifted to the minor irrigation department as principal secretary. Prabhat Shanker, who was holding the post of secretary (expenditure) in the finance department, has been made divisional commissioner of Saran.

Minor irrigation department secretary T.N. Bindeshwari has been made Kosi divisional commissioner. Shashi Shekhar Sharma, who was waiting for posting, would join as adviser in the state planning board. Sharma was removed from the transport department following a controversy over delay in ferrying of the earthquake victims from Nepal to Bihar last month.

In addition, five other IAS officers have been given additional charge. "Last night's transfer of the IAS officers shows that Nitish wants to see hardworking officials to be given field postings in an election year. More transfers of IAS officers, including the district magistrates, are on the cards," a senior IAS officer told The Telegraph.