Uncertainty over next Chief Secretary

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 10

Even as Chief Secretary P Mitra is due to retire on May 31, next month, the three senior most Additional Chief Secretaries have proceeded on long leave while many others are keen on a Central deputation or a home state posting.

Currently, ACS (Forest and Environment) Deepak Sanan, the senior-most IAS officer after Mitra, is on a month-long leave. The next in line in seniority, Ajay Mittal, ACS (Transport) too is on a long leave as he is awaiting a posting at the Centre as his name has been cleared for Central deputation. The third senior most IAS officer and ACS (Health and Family Welfare) Vineet Chawdhry is due to proceed on a 64-day leave from April 16 later this week.

Though Mitra will be retiring on May 31 there is complete uncertainty over his successor till now. He has applied for the post of Chief Information Commissioner, which fell vacant on March 24 but no final decision has been taken by the government on filling up the post. It is expected that the proper procedure of advertising the post will be followed before the government bestows favour on an officer of its choice.

Sanan is still awaiting the dropping of the charge-sheet against him following Centre’s refusal to grant prosecution sanction to the state government in the HP Cricket Association (HPCA) case in which his name figures. Since Mittal would be moving to the Centre shortly the choice for the next Chief Secretary is likely to be between Chawdhry and VC Pharka, ACS (Tourism), and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.

The name of Sanjeev Gupta, ACS (Information Technology) has been cleared by the state government for a Central deputation and the moment he gets a posting in Delhi he would leave the state. PC Dhiman, currently ACS (Home and Education), is due to retire on July 31.

As such the possibility of a major administrative re-shuffle after the retirement of Mitra is imminent. Himachal has a cadre strength of 147 IAS officers. Currently, 27 officers are on Central, inter-state or international organization postings. Some of the senior IAS officers who could be returning in the near future include Tarun Kapoor, Prabodh Saxena and Anil Khachi.

Besides the senior-rung IAS officers there are many at the middle and lower level who are also keen to move to the Centre or to their home states on deputation. Among the officers who have recently moved out includes Priyanka Basu Ingty, who has joined the Tea Board of India at Kolkata. Pratyu Mandal, another IAS officer, too has taken a posting to his home state of West Bengal.

There are several other IAS officers who are awaiting completion of their cooling period before they can proceed on Central deputation or take an inter-state deputation. Two IAS officers- Ashish Singhmar (Jharkhand) and Shaina Mol (Kerala) have also proceeded on inter-state posting to their home state.