Plenty of choices before govt for chief secretary's post

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has the task of appointing a new chief secretary, may go by seniority while making the selection among the top bureaucrats.

The incumbent Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee is retiring this month-end. The Cabinet has authorised Siddaramaiah to use his prerogative to appoint the new head of the bureaucracy. Going by seniority, 1978-batch IAS officer and Additional Chief Secretary Aravind Jadhav is the senior most followed by Anup K Pujari and Upendra Tripathy. While Jadhav heads the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal, both Pujari and Tripathy are on Central deputation.

Siddaramaiah did not forego seniority when he appointed Kaushik Mukherjee as chief secretary in October 2013. However, Jadhav has just six months of service left as he will be retiring in June next year. Pujari is set to retire in February and Tripathy in December next year.

In all, an officer in the “apex scale” can be considered for the post of chief secretary and there are 22 officers either on the State or on Central deputation for the chief minister to choose from, sources in the Department of Administrative and Personnel Reforms (DPAR) said.

If Siddaramaiah decides to go for the next rung of senior officers, then Subhash Chandra Kuntia, V Umesh,  K Ratna Prabha and S K Pattnayak will be the contenders.

While Kuntia is on Central deputation, Umesh, Ratna Prabha and Pattanayak are additional chief secretaries. Ratna Prabha presently heads the Industries and Commerce department and Pattanayak, the Home department. Kuntia has more than two years of service. However, whether he will be willing to come back to the State remains to be seen as he holds the prime post of special secretary and financial advisor in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

If Siddaramaiah decides for the chief secretary with a longer term then Prabha and Pattanayak stand a good chance as they will retire only in March 2018 and September 2018 respectively.