Karnataka IAS Reshuffle: Anjum Parwez, Rajender Kumar Kataria Get Key Additional Charges; Mohan Raj K.P. Moves to Social Welfare
Bengaluru’s bureaucratic corridors saw some quiet but meaningful movement on Tuesday as the Karnataka government shuffled a handful of senior IAS officers around, handing out additional responsibilities and making at least one notable departmental transfer.
The changes were formally notified by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms on June 10, and while the reshuffle isn’t sweeping in scale, the portfolios involved — Home, Public Works, Transport, Social Welfare — are anything but minor.
Anjum Parwez Now Holding Two Big Portfolios
Senior IAS officer Anjum Parwez, who currently heads the Forest, Ecology and Environment Department as Additional Chief Secretary, has been handed the concurrent charge of Additional Chief Secretary in the Public Works Department. The vacancy opened up after Amlan Aditya Biswas was transferred out of the PWD post.
For Parwez, this means managing two fairly distinct but equally demanding portfolios at the same time — one focused on environmental governance and forest policy, the other on roads, bridges, and public infrastructure across the state. It’s a substantial workload, and the government is clearly banking on his experience to hold both together until a regular appointment is made.
Kataria Steps Into the Home Department
Rajender Kumar Kataria, currently serving as Additional Chief Secretary in the Revenue Department, has been given concurrent charge of Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department. That’s a significant addition to his plate. The Home Department is arguably one of the most consequential wings of any state administration — it deals with law and order, police administration, internal security coordination, and disaster response, among other things. Running it alongside the Revenue Department simultaneously is no small ask.
The arrangement is almost certainly a stop-gap until a full-time posting is confirmed, but for now, Kataria is the man steering both.
Mohan Raj K.P. Gets a New Home in Social Welfare
The one proper transfer in this reshuffle involves Mohan Raj K.P., who has been moved from the Housing Department to take charge as Secretary of the Social Welfare Department. He steps into a role that was previously handled by Randeep D. on an additional charge basis — so this posting brings some regularity back to that department’s leadership.
What’s interesting here is that Mohan Raj K.P. isn’t fully leaving Housing. He’ll continue to hold concurrent charge of his old department until further orders come through. So he’s essentially straddling two departments for now, which seems to be a running theme in this reshuffle — keep things moving without leaving any desk unmanned.
Selvamani R. Takes the Wheel at KSRTC
Selvamani R., who serves as Commissioner for Transport and Road Safety, has been assigned the additional charge of Managing Director at the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, replacing Akram Pasha in that role. KSRTC is Karnataka’s largest public transport undertaking, and running it alongside his existing transport regulation responsibilities means Selvamani now has oversight of both how roads are kept safe and how a significant chunk of the state’s public bus network is operated. That’s a lot of moving parts — literally.
A New Assignment for a 2017-Batch Officer
Dr. Mahesh M., a 2017-batch IAS officer who had been awaiting posting, has been appointed Managing Director of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board. The KUWSDB handles planning and execution of urban water supply and sanitation infrastructure across the state — which, given Karnataka’s rapid urbanisation, is no small responsibility. For a relatively younger officer in terms of batch seniority, it’s a meaningful posting that puts him at the head of a body with real on-the-ground impact.
Reading Between the Lines
Taken together, these changes don’t signal any dramatic political shift or administrative overhaul — this isn’t that kind of reshuffle. What it does suggest is that the state government is actively managing vacancies as they crop up, rather than letting key departments drift without clear leadership. Handing additional charges to experienced officers like Parwez and Kataria is a fairly standard playbook, but it only works if those officers actually have the bandwidth to take it on.
The departments in question — Home, PWD, Transport, Social Welfare, and Urban Water Supply — collectively touch millions of Karnataka residents’ daily lives. How effectively they function in the coming weeks, even under these transitional arrangements, will matter a good deal more than the notification order itself.
For now, the DPAR has done what it set out to do: keep the machinery running while longer-term appointments are worked out behind the scenes.
