L-G transfers health secy, 13 others

In a major reshuffle, Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Thursday transferred 14 officials, including Health Secretary Chandraker Bharti, who has been at loggerheads with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over several issues including a ban on Chinese manjha and his ‘absence in key meetings’.

Major reshuffle

Mr. Baijal reassigned the IAS officers, giving them new responsibilities in different departments in the Delhi government. The order was issued by the services department on Wednesday.

The L-G has appointed Chandraker Bharti as the Secretary of Environment and Forest. Mr. Bharti, a 1996-batch IAS officer, earlier had additional charge of this department.

IAS officer Madhup Vyas, a 2000-batch IAS officer, has been appointed as the new Health Secretary.

Long standing request

Last August, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had demanded the then L-G Najeeb Jung to remove Mr. Bharti, who was then the Environment Secretary, for a delay in issuing a notification banning Chinese manjha. However, the demand was ignored.

In December, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain had slammed Mr. Bharti for allegedly refusing to go with the latter to LNJP Hospital following report of a death allegedly due to negligence.

Mr. Jain had also accused the officer of not ‘attending the important meetings’.