Bureaucrat shifted after Jaipur palace row

Jaipur development commissioner (JDC) Shikhar Agarwal was among 62 IAS officers transferred by chief minister Vasundhara Raje in the latest bureaucratic reshuffle. The transfer list was released on early Thursday morning.

Shikhar Agarwal, known as one of the favourite bureaucrats of the CM, leaves the coveted posting of JDC after 34 months. He has been moved to water resources and has additional charge of JDA’s smart lighting project.

His was a comparatively long tenure because in the past two decades officers have usually spent no more than two years in this post.

Mr Agarwal’s departure was speculated ever since he got involved in the Rajmahal Palace controversy with the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur whose member Diya Kumari also happens to be a BJP MLA. The royal family took out a protest rally and Diya Kumari met the national leadership of the party in Delhi to complain about Mr Agarwal after he closed one of the gates of Rajmahal Palace claiming that the land belonged to the government.

The matter was resolved after Delhi’s intervention but a few days ago, Mr Agarwal again reached the palace to fence the land.

Vaibhav Galaria, commissioner of bureau of investment promotion, would be the new JDC. N. C. Goyal who spearheaded the Jaipur Metro project has been rewarded with the additional charge of tourism and culture, along with forest, mines and petroleum. Chairman of revenue board Ajmer Ashok Shekhar was transferred to the Indira Gandhi canal board and would be replaced by O. P. Saini.