Ranchi, June 22: In the backdrop of several vacancies, the state government today reshuffled as many as 17 IAS officers, appointing dedicated deputy commissioners for Dhanbad, Deoghar and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts so far managing with officials holding additional charge.
Ranchi will also have a new deputy commissioner (DC) in the form of Vinay Kumar Choubey, who relinquishes his post of CEO in Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) to replace K.K. Soan.
While Dhanbad will have Prashant Kumar, a 2004 batch IAS officer, as DC, present incumbent Sunil Kumar Burnwal — he is on mid-career training — has been transferred to Ranchi as labour commissioner. Burnwal, a 1997 batch IAS officer, will also hold additional charge of director, urban administration in the urban development department, besides performing additional duties as director, census operations.
Former DC of Latehar, Rahul Kumar Purwar will be the new DC of Deoghar, while former DC of Jamtara Kripanand Jha will move to Seraikela-Kharsawan. Jha will also hold additional charge of Adityapur Industrial Area Development Authority as MD.
As for Soan, he will be the new registrar of co-operative societies and hold additional charge of state agriculture department as director.
Jharkhand faces a severe shortage of officials with as man as 107 of 208 posts still lying vacant. After today’s reshuffle, the effective strength of available IAS officers remains the same but the government has managed to post dedicated DCs in three districts, while also posting officers who had gone on mid career leave like Burnwal, Toppo.
Besides, 2008 batch IAS officers, who were serving as deputy development commissioners, have been given independent charge of districts like Dumka and Jamtara. Among the other changes are:
Aradhana Patnaik: Latehar DC
Shubhendra Jha: Gumla DC
Rahul Kumar Purwar: Deoghar DC
Rajesh Kumar Sharma: Koderma DC
P.K. Toppo: Simdega DC
Harsh Mangla: Dumka DC
Chandrasekhar: Jamtara DC
S.S. Tiwary: inspector-general (prison)
Rahul Sharma: administrator, Subernarekha Multi-purpose Project
Dipankar Panda: CEO, RMC
A.B. Siddiqui: Project director, Aids Control Society, also director NRHM
