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N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai
Naresh Gupta was on Tuesday shifted as the home secretary of Tamil Nadu.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is also in charge of the home portfolio, has instead named incumbent health secretary Syed Munir Hoda as the new home secretary.
Naresh Gupta, who escaped the major bureaucratic reshuffle a few days ago, when T Shugavaneswar replaced P Shankar as the chief secretary, has now been shifted to the state Planning Commission as a member.
The no-nonsense Naresh Gupta, who was the state Chief Electoral Officer when Jayalalithaa returned as chief minister after last year's assembly election, was said to be feeling stifled in his new assignment.
Along with the then chief secretary Shankar, he was said to be holding an independent view on such controversial issues as the midnight arrest of former chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi.
More recently, he said, "The chief minister is handling the Prevention of Terrorism Act detention of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko, personally."
Those who understand officialese said that Gupta as home secretary was giving vent to his feelings of being left out of sensitive administrative decisions.
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