The 2015 Bihar cadre officer has been appointed at the level of Deputy Secretary, as per the DoPT order issued on Thursday. (File Photo)More than three weeks after the Union Environment Ministry simultaneously removed three key aides of Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Thursday appointed IAS officer Prashanth Kumar C H as Private Secretary to Yadav.The 2015 Bihar cadre officer has been appointed at the level of Deputy Secretary, as per the DoPT order issued Thursday.Kumar has been appointed for five years, with effect from the date of assumption of the charge of the post, or on a co-terminus basis with the minister, or till he ceases to function as private secretary, or until further orders, whichever occurs the earliest, the DoPT order stated.Also Read | Environment Minister’s 3 top aides removed in a single day in rare purgeKumar was posted as Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar, as per the Bihar CEO website.Aides removedYadav’s private secretary and two additional private secretaries were all shunted.While Amar Singh, the private secretary, was moved out on “administrative grounds”, additional private secretary Shailesh Kumar Singh was “prematurely repatriated”, and another additional secretary, Ayush Saran’s appointment was “terminated” in an order dated July 3.In another order, also dated July 3, the appointment of Siddharth Yadav, the minister’s assistant private secretary, was also “terminated”.Story continues below this adAfter the removals, the Congress party questioned the reason behind the “clean sweep”.Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, said it was shocking. The Opposition party’s Rajya Sabha MP and senior national spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said on X, “Public deserves answers: What went wrong? What (was) discovered? Who is accountable?”.An award-winning journalist with 14 years of experience, Nikhil Ghanekar is an Assistant Editor with the National Bureau [Government] of The Indian Express in New Delhi. He primarily covers environmental policy matters which involve tracking key decisions and inner workings of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He also covers the functioning of the National Green Tribunal and writes on the impact of environmental policies on wildlife conservation, forestry issues and climate change. Nikhil joined The Indian Express in 2024. Originally from Mumbai, he has worked in publications such as Tehelka, Hindustan Times, DNA Newspaper, News18 and Indiaspend. In the past 14 years, he has written on a range of subjects such as sports, current affairs, civic issues, city centric environment news, central government policies and politics. ... Read More