Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma seems to be a true propionator of women empowerment. Not only did he increased 50% quota from 30% for women in Grade-III teaching job, he has lady officers placed at key positions in the bureaucracy.
While senior IAS officers of additional chief secretary rank like Shubhra Singh ( 1989 batch – medical health), Aparna Arora ( 1993 batch – forest) and Sreya Guha (1994-batch – transport) are heading their departments by virtue of their seniority coupled by ability, there are several young lady officers who are helming their departments despite being not so senior.
Gayatri Rathore, who is 1997 batch IAS officer, is heading tourism department. She has proved her mettle by running the department effectively and steering well the tourism business in state during the toughest times of Corona. She is among few officers whose department remained unchanged even after the change of government. In her team there are a couple of more lady officers. Anupama Jorwal, a 2011 batch IAS officer, is working as managing director of Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation while Rashmi Sharma, who is 2013 batch IAS promoted from state civil services, is holding the position of director tourism for a long time. Incidentally the minister for tourism is also a lady – deputy chief minister Diya Kumari.
Manju Rajpal, who is 2000-batch IAS officer is helming the key position of commissioner of Jaipur Development Authority (JDA). She has been quite effective in her working and has come out as a tough administrator. She ordered to bulldoze illegal construction at Golf Club before ordering to clear the encroachment in Prithviraj Nagar following orders of the High Court. Another important post in JDA – secretary- is also being held by a lady officer – Hem Pushpa Sharma, who is a 2015 batch IAS promoted from state services.
Arti Dogra, who spent considerable time in chief minister office during Congress rule, has been given important portfolio of secretary department of information technology and communication. She is among few officers who get postings irrespective of the party in power. After a long time, the DoIT is being led by a secretary rank officer. Similar is the case with Anandhi, a 2007-batch officer – a batch junior to Arti Dogra . She is helming the mining and petroleum department. Again chief minister Bhajan Lal has reposed his trust in the abilities of Anandhi, who is considered to be an effective and proactive officer. The mines department more often had been previously held by a principal secretary of additional chief secretary level officer.
Her batchmate Shuchi Tyagi is also holding important portfolio of secretary cooperative department. Giving her company is Archana Singh, who is 2008-batch officer. She is serving as the registrar of cooperative department.
The Bhajan Lal government has given important task of development and maintenance of Jaipur city to yet another lady officer Rukmani Riar, who is a 2012 batch IAS officer, serving as commissioner of Jaipur Greater Municipal Corporation. This is an important post as far as urban Infrastructure development is concerned.
The government has given important post of transport commissioner again to a lady officer – Manisha Arora, who is 2013 batch officer, promoted from state civil services. She along with Sreya Guha, additional chief secretary transport, has come up with several innovative practices in transport department. It was their initiative that Rajasthan has become the third state in the country to bring in contactless e-driving license and e-registration certificates. The e-DL and e-RC received in digital form can also be shown to the stakeholder agency through the M-Parivahan portal and DigiLocker. This has brought more transparency in transport department.
Apart from that, there are four women officers who are holding posts of divisional commissioner – Arushi Ajey Malik 2005 batch – Jaipur) Urmila Rajoria 2006
batch – Kota), Pratibha Singh (2007 batch – Pali) and Vandana Singhvi (2008 batch – Bikaner).
Prakash Bhandari is a veteran journalist with over 50 years of experience. He has worked with The Times of India for 30 years and contributed to leading publications as well as international news agency AFP.
