Mitra takes charge as Defence Secy; Tapan gets addl charge of DEA
NEW DELHI: Senior bureaucrat Sanjay Mitra has taken over as defence secretary, succeeding G Mohan Kumar.
A 1982-batch IAS officer, Mitra earlier served as secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. He will have a fixed tenure of two years as defence secretary.
He had also served as chief secretary of West Bengal.
As defence secretary, his immediate priority is likely to be the roll out of the ambitious Starategic Partnership (SP) model, besides handling various other key issues relating to the armed forces.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the additional charge of the post of the secretary, DEA to Tapan Ray in place of Shaktikanta Das, who completes his term this month-end.
Ray is a 1982 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
The Government had this January extended the tenure of Das by three months till May 31.