Senior IAS officer Anshu Prakash was appointed the chief secretary of the Delhi government on Saturday, according to an order by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
A 1986-batch IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa- Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, Prakash has been "prematurely repatriated" to his parent cadre from the Union rural development ministry.
He served as an additional secretary and financial advisor in the ministry.
Prakash, who succeeds M M Kuty, will have to strike a fine balance between the AAP government and the office of the Lieutenant Governor.
There have been differences in the past between the AAP government and the bureaucracy over a range of issues.
"The competent authority in the Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the appointment of Anshu Prakash, IAS (AGUMUT:1986)) as Chief Secretary, Government of NCT of Delhi," said the order signed by TVSN Prasad, the additional secretary in the MHA.
Prakash has the experience of working in the Delhi government as a principle secretary (health) and also in the municipal corporation of the city.
He also served as the health secretary in his previous postings in Arunachal Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration.
A 1985-batch IAS officer, Kutty, who was sent to the Union finance ministry as an additional secretary last month, had been at loggerheads with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet over various issues.
During his one-year term, Kutty and the AAP government were not on the same page on issues such as Delhi Metro fare hike.
Last month too, Kejriwal sought explanation from Kutty over his absence from Lal Bahadur Shastri's birth anniversary event organised by the AAP government.
There had also been a dispute between the government and its top bureaucrat on the issue of desilting of drains. A frequent complaint of the Kejriwal government has been that the files pertaining to their work is not shown to the ministers concerned by the bureaucrats.
