A day after he retired, the Haryana government on Friday appointed former top bureaucrat Rajesh Khullar as the Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Khullar replaces another retired bureaucrat D S Dhesi, former chief secretary, who served on the post for nearly three years.

Dhesi has been appointed as Principal Advisor, Urban Development with immediate effect and entrusted with the responsibility of overall superintendence and guidance of the Metropolitan Development Authorities in Faridabad, Gurugram, and Sonipat, according to a government order. Khullar’s appointment has also been made with immediate effect.

A 1988-batch IAS officer, Khullar was Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner of Revenue and Disaster Management and Consolidation Departments. He retired from service on Thursday.  Khullar had also held the role of Additional Chief Secretary for the School Education and Information, Public Relations, Languages, and Culture Department earlier.

A highlight of Khullar’s illustrious career was his appointment as the Executive Director at the World Bank’s Washington DC office in September 2020, for a term of three years. Prior to this international assignment, he had also served as the Principal Secretary to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for nearly five years.

During his tenure, Khullar had earlier also shouldered the responsibilities of Additional Chief Secretary, Home department while simultaneously serving as the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. He had also served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Union Ministry of Finance.