Harsh Gupta Named Principal Secretary of Karnataka's New Prajaseva Department

The Karnataka government has transferred Harsh Gupta, an IAS officer of the 1997 batch and Chairman of the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal in Bengaluru, and posted him as Principal Secretary of the newly created Prajaseva department.

Prajaseva, meaning public service, is a new department the state has set up to redress public grievances, giving it a direct policy role in how citizen complaints are routed and resolved across the state's administrative machinery.

Gupta previously headed the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body that hears appeals against orders passed by various state government authorities, giving him experience adjudicating administrative disputes ahead of taking charge of a department built around resolving citizen grievances.

As Principal Secretary of Prajaseva, he will be responsible for setting up the department's operational structure, since it has just been created, including staffing, complaint-routing protocols and coordination with district-level officials.

The department's creation places it directly under Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, with a minister to be assigned as in-charge, giving Gupta's role added visibility within the state's administrative hierarchy.

His task in the initial months will largely involve building the department's systems from scratch, since Prajaseva does not carry over an existing bureaucratic structure the way established departments do.

The transfer order was issued by the Karnataka government on Thursday.