Govt reshuffles senior officials

Wajahat Habibullah has been made the new Textile Secretary in a minor secretary-level reshuffle. A 1968 batch officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre and school friend of Rajiv Gandhi, Habibullah will take charge from Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee, who was handling textiles as an additional charge. Habibullah, who just returned from a year-long sabbatical at Institute of Peace in Washington, is an old Kashmir hand.

Uma Pillai, an IAS officer of the 1968 batch from UP cadre, will be the new Tourism Secretary taking over from Rathi Vinay Jha who is retiring on July 31. Pillai was the secretary, Department of Defence Production and Supplies.

Secretary (Water Resources) Vinod Duggal, presently in Islamabad for Tulbul talks, has been asked to take additional charge of Secretary, Drinking Water Supply in place of Palat Mohandas, who has been appointed as Secretary in the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. He replaces Shekhar Dutt, who takes over as the Secretary of Defence Production and Supplies.

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Special Secretary (J-K) in Home Ministry B.B. Misra will be taking over as the new Orissa DGP.

With former IB director K.P. Singh going on long leave, Special Director (IB) Sudhir Kumar has been appointed as Secretary (Security).