The Tripura government on Saturday removed Chief Secretary Kumar Alok from the top bureaucratic post and appointed him as the new Director of the State Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development, an official said.
JK Sinha, an IAS officer of the 1996 batch, who is the principal secretary of the Health and Family Welfare department, has been made in-charge Chief Secretary, the official said.
The removal of Kumar Alok from the post of chief secretary came a day after the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister Manik Saha as an MLA. Kumar a 1990 batch IAS officer was not seen in the oath-taking program of Saha held on Friday although it was a pre-scheduled program.
With this, the state has got six chief secretaries since the BJP-IPFT government came to power in 2018.
The previous chief secretaries include Sanjiv Ranjan, U. Vankateshwarlu, LK Gupta, and Manoj Kumar.
“(JK) Sinha, an IAS officer of 1996 batches has been made in-charge Chief Secretary since he is much junior to the outgoing Chief Secretary. An IAS officer requires to complete at least 30 years in service to become eligible for becoming Chief Secretary of a state. This is the reason why the government picked an in-charge Chief Secretary”, said a senior official on condition of anonymity.
