Chhattisgarh Reshuffles 22 IAS Officers, Sonmani Bora Named Principal Secretary, Urban Administration

Sonmani Bora, a 1999-batch IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, has been posted as Principal Secretary, Urban Administration and Development, according to an order issued by the state's General Administration Department that reshuffles 22 IAS officers across the state.

The Urban Administration and Development department oversees municipal governance, civic infrastructure and welfare schemes in cities including Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg, and administers central schemes such as PM Awas Yojana (Urban) and AMRUT that fund housing and civic infrastructure across the state's municipal bodies. Bora retains additional charge of the Science and Technology department alongside the new posting, placing two distinct portfolios under a single officer at a time when urban infrastructure spending is expanding faster than the department's own staffing.

Bora, a native of Assam who joined the IAS in 1999, has spent 27 years in the Chhattisgarh cadre, serving as Collector and District Magistrate in five districts — Surguja, Janjgir-Champa, Kabirdham, Raipur and Bilaspur. He began his career as a probationer in Ratlam district of undivided Madhya Pradesh, before the creation of Chhattisgarh in 2000 redirected his postings to the new state. He returned to the cadre in early 2024 after a central deputation as Joint Secretary in the Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development, and has since served as Secretary to the Governor of Chhattisgarh and Secretary for Labour and Parliamentary Affairs — a sequence of postings that has kept him largely in Raipur since his return from Delhi.

Bora leaves the post of Principal Secretary for Tribal Development, Scheduled Caste Development, Backward Classes and Minority Development, a portfolio he took up on return from central deputation and held for roughly a year and a half. Bhuvanesh Yadav, a 2006-batch officer, has been given additional charge of that department, adding a demanding welfare-scheme brief to his existing responsibilities without being relieved of his current posting.

The order touches officers from the 1999 to 2021 batches and covers a dozen Collector-level changes in a single stroke. R. Sangeeta, a 2005-batch officer, has been named Secretary, Mantralaya, the state secretariat that coordinates policy between departments and the chief minister's office, while Bhoskar Vilas Sandipan, a 2011-batch officer serving as Additional Chief Electoral Officer, has additionally been given charge as Managing Director, Chhattisgarh Civil Supplies Corporation, the agency responsible for running the state's public distribution system.

Several of the newly posted Collectors take charge of administratively sensitive districts: Tanuja Salam moves to Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, a tribal-belt district, Leena Kosam becomes Municipal Commissioner, Durg, and Roma Srivastava takes over as CEO, District Panchayat, Surguja. Nileshkumar Mahadev Kshirsagar moves from Collector, Kanker to Director, Urban Administration and Development, working directly under Bora, while Kundan Kumar takes his place in Kanker. The order also places Rimijiyasu Ekka as Special Secretary, Public Health Engineering, with additional charge as Mission Director, Jal Jeevan Mission, the state's flagship rural piped-water programme, and Jagdish Sonkar as Special Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection.

Ranbir Sharma takes over as Collector, Gariyaband, and Amrit Vikas Topno, Jaishree Jain and Tulika Prajapati have been posted as Collectors of Mungeli, Sakti and Kabirdham respectively, while Gopal Verma and Bhagwan Singh Uikey become Joint Secretaries for Forest and Climate Change and General Administration and Saumil Ranjan Choubey takes charge as Managing Director of the state Tourism Board. The order was issued by the Chhattisgarh General Administration Department and takes effect immediately across all 22 postings.