While many senior ministers in the UPA II have failed to have their way in getting the officials of their choice, the situation is a bit different as far as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry is concerned.
Known in the administrative and political circles to abide strictly by the law and go by the book, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, S. Jaipal Reddy has once again had his way in the re-juggle of his ministry.
Months after taking over as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Mr. Reddy in May 2011 decided to replace the high profile Petroleum Secretary, S. Sundareshan with the present incumbent, G.C. Chaturvedi who is known to be a low profile but hard working bureaucrat. This led to the Petroleum Ministry taking on Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) for non-compliance of norms in executing work and submission of field development plans for the KG-D6 block as pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report.
In yet another round of reshuffling of nearly 10 senior bureaucrats within his Ministry, Mr. Reddy has allocated the critical exploration portfolio to Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer Aramane Giridhar. The focus of the change has been on exploration division which has handled critical deals like the $8.48 billion Cairn-Vedanta and $7.2-billion RIL-BP deal as well as approvals for KG-D6 field development. The division will now have a new joint secretary and two new directors. Mr. Giridhar, an IAS officer of 1988 batch, had recently joined the Ministry and was given the charge of marketing.
He now stands elevated to the high-profile exploration division, where a vacancy has arisen due to present incumbent D.N. Narasimha Raju returning to Karnataka after completing his five-year stint at the Centre. C.B. Singh and Partha Sarthi Das, both directors in the exploration division of the Ministry, have been moved out and given other assignments. Mr. Das would handle distribution, while Mr. Singh will look after international cooperation.
Atul Patne, a 1999 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, who had joined the Ministry in November last year, would handle Mr. Das' job while Rashmi Aggarwal, who was director in-charge of distribution, would replace Mr. Singh. Vivek Kumar, Joint Secretary (International Cooperation), who had been given additional charge of marketing after Apurva Chandra was moved out of the Ministry, has again been entrusted with the same responsibility. Neeraj Mittal, who was Director (Supply and Pricing), has been assigned job of gas and vigilance, while P.K. Singh would handle his previous work. Shri Prakash would handle administration and P. Kalyanasundaram would look after corporate affairs. Anil Kumar Patil has been tasked with public grievance and client charter.
In a related development, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar has been named as the Indian Ambassador to European Union (EU). Mr. Khullar, who was the chief negotiator for India in various trade talks including the Doha round, will take charge in Brussels at a time when both India-EU are trying to narrow down sharp differences over certain trade issues in a bid to conclude the India-EU FTA this year.
However, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has not been that lucky as his attempts to seek a replacement for present Power Secretary Uma Shankar has not found favour with powers that be.
