Haider new Gujarat energy chief
Gujarat's additional chief secretary, Sayed Jawaid Haider, has replaced Mamta Verma as the head of the energy and petrochemicals department in Gandhinagar.
In turn, Verma replaces Haider in the industries and mines department as principal secretary. "Haider and Verma were made to swap their departments," says a Gandhinagar source.
On the evening of July 31 (2024), the Gujarat government's additional chief secretary in the general administration department (personnel), Kamal Dayani, released a four-page order transferring 18 senior IAS officers, including Haider and Verma, who headed the energy department for three years from June 9 (2021). From Bihar, Haider, 58, has a master's degree in physics.
After joining the IAS from Gujarat in 1991, he started as an assistant collector in Vadodara district in 1993 and served in different departments, including industries and mines, tourism, rural development, transport, science and technology and urban development. "Haider's love for people is well-known," a Gandhinagar source tells us.
"He is known for holding darbars (a king's court); there are always a lot of people in his office wherever he is posted." He also has an eye for detail.
"But this has resulted in Haider micro-managing departments where he has been posted," we hear. Haider is inaccessible to journalists.
"During the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January this year (2024), I needed some basic information about the summit, but as the chief of the industries and mines department, he did not share any information," says a senior journalist. Contacted by this report, a secretariat source tells us: "The reshuffle was expected after the departure of K Kailashnathan; don't read too much into it."
Retired IAS officer Kailashnathan left Gandhinagar on June 29 (2024) to become the lieutenant governor of Puducherry.