Is this the end to Sawant’s JS conundrum?

Jaipur: Principal Secretary of Energy Department - Bhaskar A. Sawant - is perplexed and confused as the state government has been transferring the joint secretary under him. In the IAS transfer list of October 2, Kushal Yadav has been appointed as the new joint secretary in place of Dr. Manju.

Those who know the working of Secretariat know how important the post of Joint Secretary is owing to the role. But, it is still a mystery why the DoP is not paying attention to this aspect. This fact is definitely serious and surprising that in the past three years, eight Joint Secretaries have been changed in Energy Department. They are Chinmai Gopal, Alok Ranjan, Anupma Jorwal, Dr. Artika Shukla, JS Moga, Dr. Saumya Jha, Dr. Manju and now Kushal Yadav. Among these, Chinmai and Saumya held additional charge.

Perhaps no other department has witnessed change of this many joint secretaries in such short span of time. Only DoP can reveal the reason behind the frequent change, but Bhaskar Sawant definitely has been feeling the brunt of it as he has to handle the working of such a major department all by himself. At times he has had to work for days altogether without a joint secretary.

Even the vision-2030 document preparation has also fallen on him without any second helping hand, as a result of which he has to work day and night. Even before the new JS can understand the work, the official is transferred, case in point: Dr. Manju who stayed in the department for merely twenty days. No one knows how long Kushal Yadav will stay in the department.