Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan has been transferred after holding the post for over six years. He will now be the Principal Secretary to the government in the Transport department. The new Health Secretary is Beela Rajesh, formerly the Commissioner of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy.
“Nothing unusual as I have finished 6 years and five months, and am going to another important place only. Time to move on,” Radhakrishnan told TNM.
Sources told TNM that Radhakrishnan had requested a transfer soon after he was in the line of fire for his deposition with regard to the probe into former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death, but was told to wait until the end of the Assembly session.
The standing counsel for the Arumughaswamy Commission had accused Radhakrishnan of acting like the spokesperson for Apollo Hospitals. In his deposition, Radhakrishnan had stated that he was not in favour of airlifting Jayalalithaa, as that would be tantamount to insulting Indian doctors. The then Health Secretary was also accused of failing to convey details of the treatment to the cabinet of ministers.
Another major transfer order issued was that of Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan, who has now been posted as the Commissioner of Municipal Administration. The former Commissioner was embroiled in a case regarding the issue of tenders in the corporation. Tamil Nadu contractors alleged that there was corruption and lack of transparency in the process.
Other transfers stated by the order signed by Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan include J Kumaragurubaran as the Director of Disaster Management, K Rajamani as the Collector of Coimbatore district, S Sivarasu as the Collector of Tiruchirapalli district and TN Hariharan as the Special Secretary to the Government in the Municipal Administration and Water Supply department.
Other transfers include Dr K Vijayakarthikeyan, former Commissioner of Coimbatore Corporation, being posted as Director of Tamil Nadu Institute of Urban Studies, P Uma Maheswari as Collector of Pudukottai district, T Anand as Collector of Tiruvarur district, S Ganesh as Director of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy and B Gayathri Krishnan as Joint Commissioner (Enforcement), Commercial Taxes, Coimbatore.