PWD secretary Ashwani Kumar moved to Puducherry

NEW DELHI: Ashwani Kumar, principal secretary in the Public Works Department, who has been in the firing line of the AAP government over a range of issues, is now headed for Puducherry as chief secretary. The current Puducherry CS, Manjo Kumar Parida, who has in the past worked in the Delhi government will return to the capital.
The new postings become effective immediately. They are likely to have some ripple effect.For instance, Delhi's urban development secretary Renu Sharma has also been given charge of PWD. Finance secretary S N Sahai has been given additional charge of home. Another senior IAS officer, G Narendra Kumar, has been transferred to Delhi from Puducherry. The department allocation will happen only when the new officers take charge.
In the past, Parida, a 1986-batch IAS officer, and G Narendra Kumar have both worked in the Delhi government when Sheila Dikshit was the chief minister.
According to the order of the ministry of home affairs, Delhi services secretary A Anbarasu, too, has been transferred to Puducherry. Services is a sensitive department, considering that the AAP government has repeatedly complained of having no control over appointment and transfer of officers as LG enjoys primacy in matters of administration in the union territory. Ashwani Kumar - a 1992-batch IAS officer who also held the charge of vigilance secretary -and the Kejriwal government have been at loggerheads on a variety of issues, most prominent among them being desilting of drains.
The Delhi assembly's petitions committee had recently suggested that the chief secretary fix accountability on the failure of PWD to complete desiliting of drains on time. In June, the CM wrote to chief secretary M M Kutty, asking him to initiate proceedings of "dereliction of duty" against Kumar over the issue.
The PWD secretary hit back, saying "negativity and a squabbling attitude" did not work when the task was so challenging. A Delhi assembly panel had also issued initiated "breach of privilege proceedings" against Kumar, but he later got a stay from the high court.