Lucknow, Jan 1
The Union Government has extended the term of Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra for the third time and appointed Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant as the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan, one of the three states where the BJP won a resounding victory in the recent Assembly polls.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Saturday evening, just days after the Conference of Chief Secretaries was held in Delhi, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mishra, a 1984-batch UP cadre IAS officer, was due to retire December 31; his tenure has been extended for a period of six months until June 2024.
Pant, a 1991-batch officer posted as Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in August, was repatriated to his cadre state prior to his appointment as Chief Secretary. Sources said Pant’s repatriation indicated the likelihood of similar changes in the bureaucracy in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the two other states where the BJP won the elections earlier this month.
According to sources, senior bureaucrats on central deputation who had performed well would be repatriated to their cadre states to take over as Chief Secretaries. In addition to effective administration, they will be expected to ensure the effective implementation of central welfare schemes with the 2024 Lok Sabha elections around the corner.
The Centre, sources said, is also likely to effect a similar bureaucratic reshuffle in Delhi over the coming days, with “significant posts” in departments under the Delhi government as well as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) among others expected to be part of the rejig. The reshuffle is also likely to have a ripple effect on appointments in the Union Territories (UTs) of Puducherry and Chandigarh, which has been functioning without an Adviser to the Administrator — the post is considered equivalent to that of the CS of states — since 1988-batch IAS officer Dharampal retired in late October. In addition to Dharampal, Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, of the same batch and cadre, and J&K Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, too, were scheduled to retire by November-end.
While Kumar’s tenure was finally extended for six months by the Centre (the case reached the Supreme Court), Mehta was replaced by 1989-batch AGMUT cadre officer Atal Dulloo.
