Patna: Amid the ongoing political row in Bihar, the Nitish Kumar government has transferred over 146 officers including IAS and IPS officers, report said on Saturday, January 27. The Bihar government has intotal transferred 22 IAS, 79 IPS and 45 Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) officers. The transferred officers included five district magistrates (DMs) and 17 SPs.

This comes amid the ongoing political turmoil in Bihar. Speculations are rife that CM Nitish Kumar may cross over to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) again, an alliance he left in 2022 to join hands with the opposition and form ‘Mahagathbandhan’, ditching Lalu-Tejashwi's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congess Party. 

If Nitish Kumar crosses over to NDA, it could be a major setback to the INDI allaince as two crucial partners, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party already seem to be distancing themselves from the alliance. Both Mamata Banerjee and AAP's Bhagwant Mann have announced that they will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections alone in West Bengal and Punjab respectively. 

List of Bureaucrats transferred in Bihar 

According to a notification by the general administration department, Patna DM Chandrasekhar Singh, a 2010-batch IAS officer, has been made special secretary in the chief minister's secretariat.

Singh was recently in the news for his war of letters with the state education department over closure of schools in Patna in view of cold wave conditions. He has been replaced by 2011-batch IAS officer Shirsat Kapil Ashok, who is currently the IG (prisons).

Naval Kishor Choudhary (2013-batch IAS officer), currently Gopalganj DM, will take over as the new Bhagalpur DM.

Bhagalpur DM Subrat Kumar Sen (a 2013-batch IAS officer) has been appointed as Muzaffarpur DM.

Arvind Kumar Choudhary (1995-batch IAS officer), presently posted as principal secretary (finance), has been given additional charge of principal secretary (rural development department).

Senthil K Kumar (1996-batch IAS officer), principal secretary, home department, is the new principal secretary of the planning department.

Safeena AN (1997-batch IAS officer), principal secretary, minorities welfare department, has been appointed as member, revenue board.

Meanwhile, according to a notification by the home department, 79 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, including 17 SPs posted in different districts, were also transferred on Friday.

Sushil Mansingh Khopde (1995-batch IPS), currently posted as additional director general (operations), Special Task Force (STF), has been appointed as ADG (prohibition). Amrit Raj (1998-batch IPS), currently posted as ADG (prohibition), has been appointed as ADG (operations), the notification said.

Deepak Ranjan (2012-batch IPS), currently posted as SP Jehanabad, has been transferred as commandant (Bihar Special Armed Police, Bodh Gaya).

SP Naugachia Sushant Kumar Saroj has been appointed as SP Bagaha.

SP Araria Ashok Kumar Singh has been made commandant (Bihar Special Armed Police, Sasaram), SP Siwan Shailesh Kumar Sinha has been made commandant (Bihar Special Armed Police, Patna), SP Saharasha Upendra Nath Verma is the new Purnea SP, Amitesh Kumar (SP Khagaria) will take charge as Siwan SP.

Similarly, 45 officers of Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) have also been assigned new postings.

On January 23, 29 senior IAS officers were assigned new postings in a major bureaucratic rejig. "Transfers and postings made in the last few days were part of routine exercise," a senior GAD official said. 

(With inputs from agencies)