Race for Haryana Chief Secretary hots up, Joshi leads pack

A new potboiler is in the offing in the Haryana bureaucracy with seven claimants vying for the post of Chief Secretary as incumbent TVSN Prasad retires on October 31. Throwing spice into the mix is the possibility of Prasad not leaving the post just yet as he may get a three-month extension under the rules.

Sources say though decks have been cleared for the appointment of 1989-batch IAS officer Vivek Joshi (senior-most after Prasad), as per rules, the incumbent may get a three-month extension, followed by another of the same duration.

Orders hours after Saini meets PM Modi

• Orders to repatriate Vivek Joshi to Haryana came hours after CM Nayab Singh Saini met PM Modi in New Delhi on Saturday
• Sources say the BJP government is likely to follow the seniority principle for the appointment to avoid any controversy

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has approved the repatriation of Joshi, currently posted as Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Public Grievances and Pensions, to his parent state “on the request of the Haryana Government”.

Joshi’s “ghar wapsi” five days before Prasad’s retirement is being seen as a precursor to his elevation to the top post. The orders to repatriate Joshi to Haryana came hours after CM Nayab Singh Saini met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday.

The BJP government is keen on following the seniority principle for the appointment of the Chief Secretary, especially in view of certain “seniority-related issues” among 1990-batch IAS officers. This is perhaps the reason that the Saini government had sought the repatriation of the state’s senior-most officer from the Centre.

The next in line for the Chief Secretary's post are 1990-batch officers Sudhir Rajpal, Sumita Misra, Ankur Gupta, Anurag Rastogi, Anand Mohan Sharan and Raja Sekhar Vundru.

Along with the Chief Secretary, the state government will also appoint the Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, also called the FCR, the second senior-most bureaucrat of the state. This post has been lying vacant for some time due to "seniority issues" among the 1990-batch IAS officers.