Mandeep K Bhandari appointed CBSE chairperson months after OSM row

New Delhi: Senior bureaucrat Mandeep K Bhandari was appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle carried out by the Centre on Friday. Bhandari, a 2001-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) cadre, is currently serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Bhandari's appointment as CBSE chairperson, according to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.

The appointment comes months after the CBSE faced widespread allegations of irregularities in the rollout of its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for assessing Class 12 answer scripts. The Board had ordered a probe into the procurement of services for the platform, which was also plagued by glitches.

On June 2, then CBSE chairperson Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta were transferred amid the controversy surrounding the OSM system, and Prashant Lokhande Sitaram was appointed as the new chairperson. Sitaram had been holding additional charge as CBSE chairperson since then. On July 2, he was appointed Additional Secretary in the Union Home Ministry while continuing to hold the additional charge of CBSE chairperson.

As part of the bureaucratic reshuffle, Vipin Kumar, Chairman of the Airports Authority of India, has been appointed Additional Secretary in the Department of Rural Development. Srikant Nagulapalli, Director General of Hydrocarbons, will be Additional Secretary in the Department of Expenditure. V Ponnuraj, a 2000-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, will succeed Nagulapalli as Director General of Hydrocarbons.

Sarita Chauhan Chand, Additional Secretary in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, has been appointed Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Ministry of Steel.

Senior bureaucrat Anand Singh will be Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, P Hemalatha will be Additional Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training, and Piyush Singh will be Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power.

Ankita Mishra Bundela, Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, has been appointed Additional Secretary in the Department of Higher Education.

Manisha Sensarma has been appointed Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, according to the order.