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‘Does not listen’: Top officer moved out after minister complains to Bihar CM

Hindustan Times, Patna | ByVijay Swaroop | Edited by Ashutosh Tripathi
Jul 27, 2020 09:23 PM IST

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, facing flak for his handling of the Covid-19 situation, said that he has never faced a situation like this in the past 14 years of his government.

A top bureaucrat in the Bihar health ministry was moved out amid reports of growing differences between him and the state health minister even as the Covid-19 situation in the state is getting grimmer.

Principal secretary (health) Uday Singh Kumawat has been replaced by Pratyaya Amrit, who is also the principal secretary of Energy and disaster management department.

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Kumawat is the second principal secretary to be removed from the health department in the last two months.

Earlier on May 21, Sanjay Kumar was removed from the post and transferred to the tourism department.

The number of positive cases reached 41111 on Monday in the state.

A notification about Amrit’s posting to the health department was issued by the general administration department late Monday evening.

Kumawat’s removal had become imminent after health minister Mangal Pandey lodged a complaint with chief minister Nitish Kumar in the presence of all other ministers after the cabinet meeting on Saturday.

Pandey openly took on Kumawat and said, “The officer doesn’t listen to me and only does what he wants to.”

The Bihar CM reprimanded Kumawat and said: “Every day at least 20,000 RT-PCR tests should be done else I will take action. If you cannot handle the department, please leave it. If Delhi can conduct 38,000 tests every day than why can’t Bihar?”

CM Kumar, facing flak for his handling of the Covid situation, went on to say that he had never faced a situation like this in the past 14 years of his government.

“I will soon review the health department working and will not spare the people who are indulging in wrong practices,” he said.

Kumawat has been facing criticism ever since he joined the department. There were complaints against him that he would not pick calls from officials of the health department and not even meet anyone in his chamber.

Other changes

The state government also effected some reshuffling in the administrative set up of some departments.

Additional chief secretary, labour resources department, Sudhir Kumar has been made the chief advisor of the Bihar State Planning Board while Uday Singh Kumawat has been made the advisor in the Board.

Mihir Kumar Singh, who was waiting for posting after his return from central deputation, has been made the principal secretary of the labour resources department, while development commissioner Arun Kumar Singh has been additional charge of director general Bihar Public Administration and Rural Development Institute.

In addition to this, S Siddharth, principal secretary (industry) has been given the additional charge of industry department while Sanjeev Hans, secretary water resources department has been made the secretary-cum-CMD, Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited.

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