The Congress on Friday questioned the Centre’s decision to entrust senior IAS officer Vineet Joshi with multiple responsibilities before his transfer and alleged that the appointment of Naresh Pal Gangwar as the new Higher Education Secretary was aimed at shielding Joshi.

The criticism came a day after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) appointed 1994-batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer Naresh Pal Gangwar as Secretary, Department of Higher Education, under the Ministry of Education. Gangwar replaces Joshi, who has been shifted as Secretary, Department of Panchayati Raj, as part of a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle.

Before his appointment, Gangwar was serving as Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying. He had earlier served as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, where he handled pollution control and hazardous substances.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram questioned why Joshi had been holding five key positions simultaneously before his transfer. He said Joshi had been serving as Secretary, Department of Higher Education; Secretary, Department of School Education; Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC); Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE); and Chairman of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

While acknowledging that some of these responsibilities may have been held in an additional or acting capacity, Chidambaram questioned why the government had not assigned charge of some of the posts to other officers instead of concentrating them with one person.

Congress media and publicity department chairman Pawan Khera also questioned the appointment of Gangwar, alleging that the government had replaced the Education Secretary with an officer who himself should be under scrutiny.

Khera alleged that Gangwar’s wife, mother and son had collectively received more than Rs 1.16 crore in subsidies from the National Horticulture Board while he was serving as Secretary in the Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. Alleging that corruption was deeply entrenched in the government, Khera claimed the latest appointment reflected the Centre’s functioning.