Senior bureaucrat Durga Shankar Mishra proposed to be new Uttar Pradesh chief secretary

Ahead of the upcoming elections, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra was on Wednesday repatriated to his parent cadre Uttar Pradesh as the Yogi Adityanath government proposes to appoint him as the new chief secretary, an order that comes barely two days before his retirement.

In an official order, the Personnel Ministry said that Mishra, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre due to superannuate on Friday, was being repatriated to his parent cadre.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his repatriation ''for his proposed appointment as Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh by the State Government of Uttar Pradesh'', the order said.

At present, Rajendra Kumar Tiwari, a 1985-batch IAS officer, is the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh. He is due to retire in February 2023.

The appointment is being proposed at a time when the state is preparing itself for holding the assembly elections likely to be scheduled before March next year.

The Personnel Ministry had in an order on Monday named Manoj Joshi as the new Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary in place of Mishra. Joshi, a 1989-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

He will take over as Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs upon superannuation of Durga Shanker Mishra, on December 31, the order said.