Rina Ray, the school education and literacy department secretary in the Union human resource development ministry was removed from the post on October 15 and repatriated to her parent Union Territory cadre. Her sudden removal, just four months into her tenure has sent shock waves in the government secretariat and bureaucracy. 

The order by the department of personnel and training under the prime minister’s office read, “The appointments committee of the cabinet has approved repatriation of Ray to her parent cadre with immediate effect.” However, the order cited no reason for her sudden removal. For the time being, the charge of the department has been given to information and broadcasting ministry secretary Amit Khare. The school education secretary is the senior-most bureaucrat overseeing lower education in the country.

Ray, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Union Territory, took over the reins as the secretary of the department in August 2018, succeeding IAS Anil Swarup. Before her appointment to the post, she had been serving as the special secretary in the same department under Swarup.  Her removal and repatriation, in particular, has been termed as ‘disheartening’ by many of her subordinators, as per media reports. Ray is due to retire in 2020.