Anirudh Tiwari appointed as new Chief Secretary of Punjab; DGP Dinkar Gupta likely to be replaced soon

With the change of guard in the Punjab government, new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Thursday chose Anirudh Tiwari as the new Chief Secretary of the state by removing Vini Mahajan, handpicked by former CM Capt. Amarinder Singh.

The Channi government is likely to replace DGP Dinkar Gupta, husband of Vini Mahajan, and the name of the new DGP may be announced any time. Three senior IPS officers including Sidharth Chattopadhyay, Sahota and VK Bhawra are the main contenders for the top post.

After appointing Anirudh Tewari as the Chief Secretary, the Punjab government has also re-redesignated six senior IAS officers - Vini Mahajan (1987 batch), Ravneet Kaur (1988 batch), Sanjay Kumar (1988 batch), Vijay Kumar Janjua IAS (1989 batch) and Kripa Shankar Saroj IAS (1989 batch) as special chief secretaries.

Names of three IAS officers - Ravneet Kaur, Sanjay Kumar and VK Singh – had been doing the rounds for the post of Chief Secretary. The new CM, however, picked Tiwari, a 1990 batch IAS officer, who is junior to them, for the post.

Soon after taking over as Chief Minister of Punjab, Charanjit Singh Channi had carried out a major administrative reshuffle in the bureaucracy.

The government also appointed Senior advocate DS Patwalia as Punjab Advocate General (AG) on Thursday. His appointment as the AG, Punjab, came days after Atul Nanda resigned from the post soon after Capt. Amarinder Singh put in his papers.

Senior IAS officer Varun Roojam, Managing Director of MARKFED, has been appointed a Special Principal Secretary to Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, in addition to his present assignments.

Capt. Amarinder Singh’s choice, ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu, head of the Special Task Force against drugs, will be the new chief of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau. He will replace DGP Vigilance BK Uppal.

On Monday, senior IAS officer Hussan Lal was appointed the new Principal Secretary and Rahul Tiwari the new Special Principal Secretary, respectively, to the CM.