Manoj Kumar Das is head of Gujarat Industries & Mines Department

GNN | May 27, 2017, 6:00 PM IST|

Gandhinagar, May 27, 2017. Contrary to expectations of his moving to the Energy Department, former GSPC Joint Managing Director Manoj Kumar Das has taken over as the head of Gujarat’s Industries & Mines Department.
GNN learns Das, 50, will perhaps be the youngest IAS officer to head the important Industries & Mines Department as Principal Secretary. Additional Chief Secretary Sujit Gulati, 57 who heads the Energy and Petrochemicals Department who had the additional charge of Industry since March 1 was supposed to shift from energy to industries.
But in a reshuffle of IAS officers on April 25, the Gujarat Government transferred Das to head the Industries & Mines Department.
Alongwith Das, 44 other IAS officers were transferred in an order signed by L. Chuaungo, Principal Secretary in the General Administration Department.
Das who had worked as joint MD at GSPC from July 2014 to April 2015 was shunted out to the comparatively low profile Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department after the present DGH boss Atanu Chakraborty assumed full-fledged charge as GSPC managing director.
“It speaks a lot of all the hard work Das has done in his previous assignments,” a Gandhinagar source tells GNN.
It was during his tenure as commissioner of Vadodara that the Vadodara Municipal Corporation in 2009 signed a joint venture agreement with GAIL to strengthen India’s oldest surviving city retail gas operations.
“Industries & Mines is considered a very high profile department,” our source says. “Many senior officers wanted the plum posting.”
Replacing Das is Sangeeta Singh, principal secretary in the Revenue Department.