Former union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi to be next CAG

Rajiv Mehrishi is a 1978-batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer.

Pic courtesy: IANS

Delhi: Rajiv Mehrishi, who retired on Thursday as the union home secretary, will be the next Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), as per media reports.

He is a 1978-batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer.

Mehrishi will be replacing Shashi Kant Sharma, who was appointed by the UPA government in May 2013. He completes his term as the country's top auditor next month-end.

The CAG is appointed for a term of six years or till the incumbent attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

PTI quoted sources as saying that a formal order on this is expected soon.

Also, three senior bureaucrats have been appointed as Deputy CAG.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet today approved the appointments of Ashwini Attri, Anita Pattanayak and Ranjan Kumar Ghose as Deputy CAG, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

Attri is a 1981 batch officer of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. Pattanayak and Ghose belong to 1982 batch of the service.

Ghose's appointment to the post is in the rank and pay of secretary to the Government of India, the order said. 

As a constitutional functionary, the CAG is primarily entrusted with the responsibility to audit the accounts of the Union government and of the state governments.

CAG reports are laid before Parliament and state Assemblies. 

In other bureaucratic reshuffle today, Anita Karwal has been made Chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Rajiv Kumar - Secretary, Department of Financial Services and Asha Ram Sihag - Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry.

Further, Inder Jit Singh has been named Secretary (Coordination) in Cabinet Secretariat and N Baijendra Kumar, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of National Mineral Development Corporation.

Gujarat-cadre IAS officer Rameswhar Prasad Gupta will be Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog. 

Satyajeet Rajan, presently serving in his cadre state Kerala, has been named Director General, Tourism and Ali Raza Rizvi, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce has been appointed Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Meanwhile, earlier today bureaucrat Rajiv Gauba, 58, took charge as the Union Home Secretary after superannuation of Mehrishi.

He is a 1982-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre.

On the other hand, former IAS officer Sunil Arora has been appointed as Election Commissioner, the Law Ministry said.

After Nasim Zaidi retired as CEC in July, there was a vacancy in the poll panel. While Achal Kumar Joti is the Chief Election Commissioner, Om Prakash Rawat is the other EC.

(With PTI inputs)