NEW DELHI: Govt on Thursday appointed seven new secretary-rank officers, including the new heads for oil, telecom and agriculture ministries.A late evening order said that the appointments committee of cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to appoint Neeraj Mittal, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, as petroleum secretary, replacing Pankaj Jain, who was named member secretary of the Eighth Pay Commission. Mittal is a familiar face in the ministry, having worked as director and joint secretary.He will be replaced by Amit Agrawal in the department of telecom. Agrawal, who is from the Chhattisgarh cadre, is currently the pharma secretary.Manoj Joshi, a 1989- batch IAS officer, will move to pharmaceuticals from the department of land resources, while V Vidyarthi will move from tourism to the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities. Replacing him will be a fellow officer from Karnataka, Srivatsa Krishna.Atish Chandra, a 1994-batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre, who is currently in the Prime Minister’s Office, has been named officer on special duty in the department of agriculture and farmers welfare, and will take over as secretary at the end of Feb, when Devesh Chaturvedi retires.Chennai Port Trust chairman Sunil Paliwal has been named chairman of the Inland Waterways Authority of India.
