JS swap whispers
Joint secretary exploration DN Narasimha Raju, 55, might soon swap roles with ministry joint secretary Apurva Chandra, if you believe the oil ministry grapevine.
Corridor whispers in Shastri Bhawan are alive with talk that Raju will soon take charge of the ministry’s less onerous marketing division, while Chandra, 45, will oversee the exploration brief. Oil minister Jaipal Reddy, we hear, blames Raju for supporting former oil secretary S.
Sundareshan in the shoddy handling of Cairn Energy’s $9.6bn sale of its majority stake in Cairn India to Vedanta Resources. Raju, who joined the IAS from Karnataka in 1984, completes his five-year term in Delhi on October 5, 2011 and is likely to move to a state government post in Bangalore.
Other changes in ministry centre on director marketing UC Nangia, who retires in June this year. “The DoPT will soon tell us who could replace Nangia,” says a ministry official.
Nangia was promoted from ministry ‘under secretary’ to director in February 2008.