Kewal Kumar Sharma, IAS officer of 1983 batch and Goa Chief Secretary (CS), will be new the Chief Secretary of Delhi. Following the request of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Goa CM laxmikant Parsekar has agreed to relieve KK Sharma for Delhi Government.
Sharma has an impeccable track record, except some adverse comments by Former PM Manmohan Singh-led VK Shunglu Committee report related to Commonwealth Games 2010 scam. later,
he was given clean chit in the entire matter. Before joining as the Goa Chief Secretary in November last year, he was advisor to Governor of Punjab and administrator of Chandigarh.
Kejriwal has suggested Sharma’s name after his first choice, Ramesh Negi, a 1984 batch officer was rejected by the Home Ministry. Negi is currently the Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh.
“I would request you that if you cannot appoint Negi as the Delhi Chief Secretary, then please make Goa’s Chief Secretary KK Sharma as the Delhi’s Chief Secretary. I am hoping you will agree this time with us surely,” Kejriwal had written in a letter to Rajnath Singh on Saturday, questioning at the same time whether his Government “chosen by people with such a heavy mandate” does not have the right to choose an able Chief Secretary.
Singh in a letter to Kejriwal on February 27 expressed his inability to appoint Negi for the job and instead suggested a panel of three senior-most AGMUT cadre officers for the CM to choose from. Kejriwal, in his reply, has said “he is not in agreement” with the Home Ministry’s panel of three officers — Sanjay Kumar Srivastava (1980 batch), Anand Prakash (1979 batch) and Naini Jayaseelan (1980 batch). Naini Jayaseelan has already reported Delhi Government and awaiting her posting. After retirement of DM Spolia, the Kejriwal Government has appointed acting Chief Secretary 1986 batch officer and Principal Secretary (Finance) SN Sahai till appointment is made.
Sources in MHA said that the Ministry had informally communicated another option for Kejriwal, to suggest name of any officer who is in the payband apex scale of `80,000. He has suggested the name of KK Sharma — who is in the `80,000 payband scale.
Sharma became the Chief Secretary of Goa on January 1, 2015 and had barely completed two months in his present posting. He was last posted in Delhi as the Principal Secretary (PWD) from 2009 to 2011 and will supersede five officers of his cadre if he is appointed as the Delhi Chief Secretary, including Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Naini Jayaseelan, Vijay Madan (1981), Satyawati (1982) and JK Dadu.
During his tenure as Principal Secretary for PWD in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Sharma had ensured to complete all the projects prior to the start of CWG in Delhi. He had served in Kosovo between 1999 and 2005 on United Nations assignment.