Vivek Joshi takes charge as new Haryana chief secretary

Vivek Joshi, a 1989 batch IAS officer, on Monday took charge as the new chief secretary of Haryana.

Joshi succeeded Anurag Rastogi, who assumed charge as the chief secretary on November 1 as ‘stop gap arrangement’ till Joshi’s joining in his parent cadre of Haryana.

Former chief secretary TVSN Prasad had retired from service on October 31.

The orders for the appointment of the senior-most IAS officer of the Haryana cadre as chief secretary were issued on October 31.

The spotlight shifted to Joshi after Prasad with the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) approving repatriation of Joshi, currently posted as secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Public Grievances and Pensions, to his parent state of Haryana “on the request of the Government of Haryana” on October 26.

Joshi’s ‘ghar wapsi’ in Haryana five days before Prasad’s retirement was seen as a sign of his being elevated to the top post.

Interestingly, the orders to repatriate Joshi to Haryana by Manisha Saxena, secretary of the ACC, came hours after Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today.

In fact, the BJP government was keen to follow the ‘seniority principle’ for the appointment of the new chief secretary especially in view of the ‘seniority issues’ among certain 1990 batch IAS officers. That is perhaps the reason that the Saini government had sought the repatriation of the senior most officer from the Union.