2 min readNew DelhiJul 24, 2026 09:13 AM IST
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.
Kumar was posted as Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar, as per the Bihar CEO website.
Aides removed
Yadav’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”.
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After 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?”.