Government effects major bureaucratic reshuffle
New Delhi: In a major reshuffle of bureaucrats in key economic ministries, Mr. EAS Sarma, the economic affairs secretary, who has been shifted to the coal ministry, has tendered his resignation.

Mr. Ajit Kumar has come in as finance secretary in place of Mr. Piyush Mankad. The other new faces are Mr. S Narain revenue secretary and Mr. P Shankar petroleum secretary. The reshuffle means that the finance ministry will be headed by a new-look team barely four months before the next budget.

Mr. Mankad, the former finance secretary, is the new secretary in the department of industrial policy and promotion.

According to sources, the reshuffle of the top brass at North Block has been done on the insistence of the finance minister, who is understood to have been unhappy with the old team as a result of which the finance ministry has been receiving a lot of flak.

The government feels that a new team will give the finance minister the required leverage to infuse fresh ideas in the budget to tide over the present fiscal mess.
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