New Delhi: Ministry of Home Affairs' Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla (IAS) has been assigned with the additional responsibility as Secretary of the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT). According to an order from the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the assignment of the additional charge of the post to Bhalla with immediate effect and till the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
Bhalla is a 1984-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and serving as Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) since August 23, 2019. In September 2020, Bhalla had been given an additional charge of DoPT for a few months after the then Secretary C. Chandramouli had superannuated on September 30, 2020. He also got another year of extension in service on August 12 as he was to retire on August 22, 2021, following the first extension given to him on October 17, 2020, ahead of his scheduled retirement in November 2020 after completing 60 years.
Bhalla holds a Masters in Botany (M Sc) from the University of Delhi. He has also done an MBA from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and M Phil in social sciences from the Punjab University. Bhalla, a senior bureaucrat, has handled various important positions in the union government. Prior to joining as Secretary of MHA, he was serving as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the same Ministry.
His previous assignments include Secretary of the Ministry of Power from July 2017 to July 2019, Director General of Foreign Trade, Additional Secretary of Department of Commerce, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Coal and as Director (Ports) in the Department of Shipping among others.
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