Debendranath Sarangi, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service of the 1977 batch, was on Monday appointed Chief Secretary following the change of government.
He succeeded S. Malathi, who became the Chief Secretary on August 31 last year. Till now, Mr. Sarangi was Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO).
A native of Cuttack (Orissa), Mr. Sarangi had held various positions in the government, including the Secretary of Revenue, Transport and Environment and Forests Departments.
Ms. Malathi has been made Additional Chief Secretary and Director of Statistics and Economics, a post she held during 2001-2006.
M. Sheela Priya, who was Ms Malathi's predecessor, P. Rama Mohan Rao, Principal Secretary (Agriculture), and K.N. Venkataramanan, Principal Secretary (Personnel and Adminstrative Reforms), have been appointed Secretaries to Chief Minister.
A. Ramalingam, Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, has been posted Additional Secretary to Chief Minister. Reeta Harish Thakkar, Joint Commissioner of Municipal Administration, is the Joint Secretary to Chief Minister.
Sheela Rani Chunkath, Chairperson and Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation, has been transferred as Principal Secretary (Home, Prohibition and Excise) in the place of K. Gnanadesikan.
K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty, Principal Secretary (Municipal Administration and Water Supply) has been posted as Special Commissioner of Archives and Historical Research.
J.K. Tripathy, a 1985-batch officer of the Indian Police Service, took charge as the new Commissioner of Police, Chennai. He replaced T. Rajendran posted as Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons), Chennai.
According to police sources, the transfer orders were issued hours after All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa was sworn in as the Chief Minister. A native of Orissa, Mr. Tripathy was the recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2008. He received the award for introducing an innovative ‘community policing module' in Tiruchi where he served as the Police Commissioner.
Mr. Tripathy had launched a ‘slum adoption programme' in which dropouts, mostly children of anti-social elements, were provided an opportunity to go back to school or take up vocational courses.
He is the recipient of the International Community Policing Award conferred by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Toronto, Canada, in 2001 and also a gold medal for ‘Innovations in Governance' at Glasgow, U.K. in 2002 by the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, the sources said.
Asked on his priorities as the Police Commissioner, Mr. Tripathy said he would render top priority to Law and Order as desired by the Chief Minister. Police would take steps to erase the fear of crimes in the minds of public. “The safety of school-going children will also be an area of thrust. We will put down rowdyism with an iron fist,” he said.
