In a major bureaucratic reshuffle, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Beela Rajesh has been shunted out and replaced by senior IAS officer J Radhakrishnan, Secretary of Revenue Administration.
Beela Rajesh has been posted as Secretary, Commercial Taxes and Registration department, of which Industry Secretary N Muruganandam had been in additional charge.
The transfer comes at a time when Coronavirus infection has been steadily increasing in the State in the last one month and over 40,000 persons have been infected so far. Chennai is the worst affected. Beela Rajesh was in the thick of action ever since the virus infection started three months ago. There was no official reason attributed to her transfer. Sources in the government are tight-lipped.
Court concerned
Her transfer comes a day after the Supreme Court
Recently, the DMK leader MK Stalin blamed the government for lack of transparency in revealing the exact number of deaths due to coronavirus. In reply, Beela Rajesh said a team has been formed and it is looking at this issue.
Radhakrishnan, who has been Health Secretary for eight consecutive years till October 2019, is not new to crisis management. He was involved in containing dengue spread in Chennai and effectively handled the post-Tsunami operations in the worst affected Nagapattinam district. He was made Special Nodal Officer for Greater Chennai Corporation, and has also been coordinating with collectorates of Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur to contain the spread of the virus.
Covid update
Meanwhile, today 1,982 new cases of Coronavirus were reported in the State to take the total tally to 40,698. In Chennai alone 1,479 cases were reported taking the total infected to 28,924.
On Friday, 1,342 positive patients were discharged following treatment to take the total recovered to 22,047. This leaves the number of active cases at 18,281.
The number of deaths due to Covid-19 rose to 367 after 18 patients died today.
The total blood samples tested on Friday was 18,231, says a health ministry bulletin.