SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s Principal Secretary, Dr Mandeep K Bhandari, has been appointed chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Centre said on Friday.
Bhandari, a 2001-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, is currently serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor and also holds charge as Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. The J&K government’s official records list him in the post of Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor.
His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle.
Bhandari has held several key administrative positions in Jammu and Kashmir, including Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Deputy Commissioner Leh, Additional District Development Commissioner Kathua and Divisional Commissioner Jammu. He has also served as CEO of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and Commissioner/Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department.
He had also served in the Union government as Private Secretary to the then Human Resource Development Minister and later as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Bhandari’s appointment comes months after changes at the CBSE following controversy over the implementation of its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class 12 answer scripts.
In June, then CBSE chairman Rahul Singh and secretary Himanshu Gupta were transferred, while Prashant Lokhande was appointed chairman of the board.
The CBSE had subsequently initiated a probe into the procurement of services related to the digital evaluation platform amid complaints over glitches and alleged irregularities.
