CVC among many posts falling vacant

Current Home Secretary G K Pillai, former Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla, former Secretary DOPT Shantanu Kansal, Secretary for Chemical and Fertilizers Bijoy Chatterjee, ex-Secretary for Legislative Affairs V K Bhasin, and former Development Secretary M Ramachandran are in the shortlist of names for the CVC position, which the government is in a hurry to fill.

The Cabinet’s Appointment Committee has cleared the name of senior IAS officer Raj Kumar Singh to succeed Pillai, who is retiring on June 30.  The 1975 officer from the Bihar cadre, who is currently Secretary at Department of Defence Procurement, will be Home Secretary. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao would follow Pillai into retirement in July with  the present US ambassador Nalin Surie and India’s UN envoy Hardeep Puri are frontrunners to fill her position. Rao is expected to become US ambassador.

With the Defence Secretary position to fall vacant in July after the retirement of its present occupant Pradeep Kumar, the 1975 batch IAS officer Sunil Mitra has been appointed new Finance Secretary.

Given the controversy that surrounded the appointment of P J Thomas as CVC, the government is keen on getting it right this time.