YOGI’S NEW INNER CIRCLE

In recent years, the Uttar Pradesh bureaucracy had developed an image of being controlled by a few officers with a huge, even disproportionate, role in major decisions.

- Prashant Srivastava

Awanish Awasthi, a 1987 batch IAS officer, and his 1988 batch compeer Navneet Sehgal were the stars—two of chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s most trusted aides, entrusted with the keys to the kingdom. Suddenly last week, everything changed. Awasthi, additional chief secretary (ACS) for home, vigilance and a host of other key departments, had his retirement date coming up on August 31, but the buzz was he would get an extension. Not only did that not happen, just hours after his retirement, even ACS Sehgal, widely seen as the CM’s troubleshooter, was shunted out from the high-profile information and MSME departments to the modest sports department. And it didn’t end there: it was a transfer blitz the likes of which had not been seen in UP since Mayawati’s days as CM. Besides Sehgal, 15 other senior IAS officers were transferred—including Amit Mohan Prasad (ACS health) and Aradhna Shukla (ACS secondary education). UP’s “most powerful officer” will now be the 1995-batch IAS officer Sanjay Prasad, who has been given additional charge of home and information along with his current post, that of principal secretary to the CM.