Continuing with the tradition of repatriating union secretaries to home cadre for donning the chief secretary role, the newly elected BJP government in Haryana will get a new chief secretary in Vivek Joshi, who has been repatriated to home cadre. He was serving as secretary of department of personnel and training. He is set to replace TVSN Prasad, who will hang his boots on October 31, 2024.
Joshi is not the first
The union government is doing a new experiment by sending secretaries in central ministries to serve as chief secretary in BJP ruled state. On recent times, it started off with Durga Shankar Mishra, who was sent to Uttar Pradesh from centre to take over as chief minister with barely two days before his retirement on December 29, 2021. He was the serving as secretary in urban development and housing department at centre. Mishra then continued to serve on extension till June 2024 becoming one of the longest serving chief secretary on extension.
Atal Dulloo, a 1989 batch IAS officer became the first native officer of Jammu Kashmir to become chief secretary on December 1, 2023. He was also repatriated from centre to his home cadre and native state. He was then serving as secretary, border management.
In Rajasthan also, central government sent Sudhansh Pant to take over as chief secretary when BJP won back in the state in 2023 elections. Pant was then serving as secretary in union health ministry. Pant, who took over in January 2024, has been coordinating well between central and state government. His acquaintance with officers in PMO and other ministries is helping Rajasthan to get right support in centre run schemes.
In Odisha, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh also, centre sent union secretaries back to their home cadres to serve as chief secretaries. In Odisha Manoj Ahuja replaced Pradeep Kumar Jena to become first non Odiya IAS as chief secretary. He was then serving as union agriculture secretary. In Bihar also, Amrit Lal Meena was sent to clinch the position of chief secretary. Meena was then serving as coal secretary at centre.
In Madhya Pradesh, Anurag Jain, a 1989 batch IAS officer, who was serving as secretary road, transport and highways at centre, was sent to home cadre yo take over as chief secretary this month.
Why centres repatriates its secretaries to home cadre for top post?
This is a new phenomenon. According to senior bureaucrats, in Modi rule PMO has become the most powerful department. The government is being run by PMO.
In states, post Modi's accession to power, CMO has also become powerful at state. To create a delicate balance, centre has started appointing chief secretaries of its choice in BJP ruled states. The experiment so far has worked well for Modi and BJP. There is close monitoring of top BJP leadership on affairs in states.
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.
