New Delhi, March 1 -- The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the empanelment of 41 senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers for holding posts at the Centre at the level of Secretary and Secretary-equivalent, according to an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on Saturday. In a separate order, the ACC also approved the empanelment of 28 officers to hold additional secretary posts in the Centre. In recent years, this is the highest number of IAS officers empanelled in a single order to hold secretary level posts. According to DoPT records, 40 IAS officers were empanelled on February 11, 2021 and 41 on October 9, 2019. The 41 senior bureaucrats approved by the ACC to hold secretary positions in the latest order are from the 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 batches. The order will pave the way for many of these senior IAS officers to be appointed to key roles as secretaries in the Centre. Among the 41 empanelled by the ACC are Keshav Kumar Pathak (BH, 1990); S. Gopalakrishnan (TN, 1991); Surendra Kumar Bagde (MH, 1993); Sanjay Lohiya (AM, 1994); Keshav Chandra (AGMUT, 1995); Rohit Kansal (AGMUT, 1995); D Thara (GJ, 1995); Bharat Harbanslal Khera (HP, 1995); Satendra Singh (JH, 1995); TK Anil Kumar (KN, 1995); Abhishek Singh (NL, 1995); Sushil Kumar Lohani (OR, 1995); Dilip Kumar (PB, 1995); Jaspreet Talwar (PB, 1995); Rajeev Singh Thakur (RJ, 1995); Sanjay Kumar (TG, 1995); MA Siddique (TN, 1995); Ashutosh Jindal (TR, 1995); Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan (UP, 1995); and Santosh Kumar Yadav (UP, 1995). The ACC is composed of the PM as the chairperson and the home minister as a member. htc...