New Delhi: Sitanshu Kar, the longest serving spokesperson of the Defence Ministry, has been transferred as the Director General (DG) of All India Radio’s News Services Division.
Kar held the post of Director General (Media and Communications) of Press Information Bureau and was given the additional charge last year as the Principal Spokesperson of Ministry of Defence.
Mohan Chandak, the current serving DG NSD of AIR, will replace Kar as the PIB DG (Media and Communications).
Chandak is an officer of 1982 batch of Indian Information Service, while Kar is from 1983 batch.
Interestingly, current PIB chief Frank Noronha is also from 1982 batch.
Official sources said it is yet to be decided who will be the new spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence.
Kar also holds the post of Director of Public Relations in the Defence Ministry. Kar had joined the Defence Ministry as its spokesperson in 2005 and was the highest-ranking IIS officer to hold the post of Defence Ministry spokesperson.
In an order issued yesterday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said both the officers “are relieved of their present charge with the direction to take up the new charge with immediate effect.”
However, sources said it is likely to take some days as, unlike other ministers, a lot of security formalities have to completed before one joins or leaves.