Ths Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday appointed Air India's former Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani as Chairman of Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC).
The government has assigned the rank of a Cabinet minister to Lohani, who previously served as Chairman of the Railway Board and Chairman and Managing Director of India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).
Chief Secretary Nilam Swahney issued an order to this effect on Tuesday. She directed the Youth Advancement, Tourism & Culture Department to pay the salary and allowances to him on par with the cabinet ministers.
The tenure of the appointment is for a period of one year, from the date of assumption of charge.
Lohani is the second former bureaucrat from Delhi to be appointed on a key position by the YSRCP government. Earlier this month, former Union Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg was appointed as an Advisor (Resource Mobilisation) to the Chief Minister with a Cabinet rank for a two-year period.
Garg, who served under the Narendra Modi-government, had also been assigned the rank of a Cabinet Minister, as per an order issued by Principal Secretary (Political) Praveen Prakash.
Garg, an IAS officer of the 1983 batch of the Rajasthan cadre, was Finance and Economic Affairs Secretary when he opted for early retirement from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in July last year after the presentation of the Union Budget. The senior bureacrat was vocal about his opinions on the economic policies of the central government in recent months and had also presented a note on reforms that the government should undertake to the Centre.
In an earlier appointment by the YSRCP government, 2009-batch IAS officer Kartikeya Misra was made the Special Secretary for resource mobilisation and institutional finance in the Finance Department. Misra, who was also given full additional charge of the AP State Financial Corporation, was tasked with ensuring that revenue-generating projects taken up by various departments were functioning smoothly.