The Centre has given the green light for the appointment of Prashanth Kumar, a Bihar cadre IAS officer, as the Private Secretary to the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav. Kumar’s appointment, at the level of Deputy Secretary, is effective for five years from assuming office, on a co-terminus basis with the Minister, or until further orders, as per the official order from the Centre’s Department of Personnel.
The Bihar government has been directed by the Centre to immediately relieve Prashanth Kumar, a 2015 batch IAS officer, of his current duties to take up his new role with the Union Minister. The Department of Personnel has communicated this directive to Bihar’s Chief Secretary, Pratyaya Amrit.
In a recent development on July 3, 2026, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change made sudden changes by removing Union Minister Bhupender Yadav’s Private Secretary, Assistant Private Secretary, and two Additional Private Secretaries. The reasons behind these removals were not explicitly disclosed in the official orders, but sources suggest that these officials may have exceeded their designated roles by assuming significant decision-making responsibilities.
