Union Health, AYUSH Ministries gets new Principal Secretaries

New Delhi: In a first, the government appointed an Ayurveda expert the secretary of the AYUSH department.

In a departure from the convention of appointing bureaucrats to the position of secretary, Vadiya Rajesh Kotecha, who was appointed the special secretary in the AYUSH ministry in June this year, was made its secretary for a period of three years, the order said.

The three-year tenure of Kotecha, a former vice- chancellor of Gujarat Ayurveda University in Jamnagar, will also include his term as special secretary, it said.

A Bihar-cadre IAS officer of the 1983 batch, C K Mishra, who was the health and AYUSH secretary, will be the new environment secretary,

Preeti Sudan, a 1983-batch officer from Andhra Pradesh, has been appointed the new health secretary.

Prior to her appointment, Preeti Sudan has served in various capacities in the Union Ministries/Departments including Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Defence.

During a career span of more than 33 years, Sudan has served in various capacities in his cadre state of Andhra Pradesh. She served in various department including Revenue Department, Disaster Management Department, Health and Family Welfare, Finance, Seeds/Agriculture Corporation.

Preeti Sudan has done M.Phil. in Economics. Ms. Sudan is proficient in Hindi, English, Punjabi and Telugu.

Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh Shankuntala Gamlin, a 1984-batch IAS officer of UT cadre, will be the new secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DIVYANGJAN).