Uttarakhand govt transfers 21 bureaucrats

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government on Monday transferred 21 bureaucrats from the central and state services.
Secretary (personnel) S S Rawat said that senior IAS officer from the 1988 batch, S S Sandhu, was appointed principal secretary to chief minister Vijay Bahuguna replacing D K Kotia who retired on Sunday.
A government source said Kotia who was also principal secretary to former CM B C Khanduri during the previous BJP government may be given a post-retirement job.
Rawat said Sandhu who was already heading important departments including tourism and drinking water will now be will be given additional charge of key departments like PWD and Power.
Apart from Sandhu, 20 other officers from the state administrative service and police have been reshuffled as part of a move to clean up administrative and police machinery by sidetracking controversial and corrupt officers. City magistrate Harak Singh, was promoted to additional district magistrate (Dehradun) and SP (Dehradun City) Dileep Singh Kunwar was transferred as additional SP (Dehradun district).
A government source said more senior IAS officers of principal secretary rank will be reshuffled to replace controversial and corrupt officers within a week.