Indicating that he is willing to take along top bureaucrats of the UPA regime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday gave his nod for a six-month extension to Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth who was due to retire on June 14.
The 1974 Uttar Pradesh IAS cadre officer was already on one year extension after completeing is service.
He is in league with previous cabinet secretaries KM Chandrasekhar and BK Chaturvedi who managed to stay in office post retirement due to multiple extensions.
The bureaucratic circle is abuzz with the information that though the government had drawn a list of eight senior most officers for shortlisting a replacement for Seth but there was no consensus.
The move to retain Seth has lead to heart burns among many senior bureaucrats for it would eliminate chances of at least 21 senior officers of three batches — 1976, 1977 and 1978.
The immediate casualty would be senior most IAS officers of 1976 batch which include Sutanu Behuria and Ashok Kumar Sinha.
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