New set of babus to take over in Dispur

A 1999-batch IRS-IT officer, Rajnish Dev Burman, who worked as Private Secretary to Sonowal when he was a Union minister, is likely to be appointed as principle private secretary to the new CM

Staff Reporter

Guwahati, May 29: With the change of guard in the State, the secretariat at Dispur is set to see a major rejig of high officials.

Sources said Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal will handpick a new set of officers for the CM’s secretariat – most of them men who have worked with him in the past.

No new officer has been posted at the CM’s secretariat since Sonowal took oath on May 24.

The State’s Personnel department has sent a list of IAS and ACS officers posted in the State and those on deputation to the new CM.

Former CM Tarun Gogoi’s secretariat comprised one additiol chief secretary, one secretary, three joint secretaries and two principle private secretaries (ACS officer rank) besides his PAs and other staff.

The sanctioned IAS cadre strength in the State is 186, though the present strength is only 153. Of them, 121 officers are posted in the State, 31 are on central deputation and one is on inter-state deputation. As many as 33 posts are vacant.

Sources said a 1999-batch IRS-IT officer, Rajnish Dev Burman, who worked as Private Secretary to Sonowal when he was a Union minister, is likely to be appointed as principle private secretary to the new CM. The officer is likely to be his key aide in his secretariat.

Besides Dev Burman, a few other officers who have worked with Sonowal in Delhi are also likely to be brought into the State.

The procedure to bring in officers who are on deputation is a tedious one as it needs various sanctions, including that from a PM-headed committee.

Some of the top serving bureaucrats in the State are likely to be reshuffled shortly.