Ranchi, March 28: In a bureaucratic reshuffle today, the state government transferred as many as nine IAS officers while more are likely to follow suit as chief secretary Rajiv Gauba moves to Delhi, and veteran senior bureaucrats Sajal Chakraborty and Ratan Kumar retire on March 31.

Palamau deputy commissioner (DC) K. Srinivasan has been transferred to Seraikela-Kharsawan in the same capacity while Ameet Kumar, Jharkhand Urja Sancharan Nigam Limited MD, will now assume the DC's chair.

Lohardaga DC Manjunath Bhajantri will, on the other hand, take Kumar's place in Jharkhand Urja Sancharan Nigam Limited as the MD. Bhubnesh Pratap Singh, joint secretary in the chief secretary's office, would be Lohardaga DC.

Outgoing Seraikela-Kharsawan DC Chandra Shekhar, meanwhile, would now assume the charge of Khunti. Outgoing Khunti DC Waghmare Prasad Krishna will assume charge as director (tourism) and hold additional charge of Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation MD. Present director, Suchitra Sinha, is awaiting her new charge.

Bokaro DDC Arvind Kumar would become the Godda DC while outgoing Godda DC, Harsh Mangla, would serve as joint secretary in the state welfare department in Ranchi.

In another reshuffle, 1995-batch IAS Satendra Singh, secretary of excise and prohibition department, will assume charge of planning-cum-finance (expenditure) department secretary. But, Singh will also hold the additional charge of secretary of excise and prohibition department and registrar (chit fund), Jharkhand.

Insiders say with chief secretary Rajiv Gauba moving to Delhi as secretary of Union urban development ministry and former chief secretary Sajal Chakraborty and personnel secretary Ratan Kumar retiring, more reshuffles in top ranks of bureaucray would take place within a week or so.

Jharkhand has eight posts - four cadres and four ex-cadres - of additional chief secretary rank. It is the state government's prerogative to choose one as chief secretary.

It is likely that the Raghubar Das government will select the new chief secretary by March-end or April first week.

It is likely that principal secretary of planning-cum-finance department Amit Khare and R.K. Shrivastava (who has recently been brought from Airports Authority of India, Delhi, where he was the chairman) would be promoted to rank to the rank of additional chief secretary.

Additional chief secretary ranked officials at present include N.N. Pandey, U.P. Singh and Rajbala Verma.

Jaguar charge

Inspector-general (provisions) R.K. Mallick has been given the additional charge of IG special task force, which is also popularly known as Jharkhand Jaguar, according to a state home department notification on Monday.