Chief Secretary Rajiv Gauba, who is set to leave for Delhi on March 31 to take up his new assignment as Secretary of Urban Development, Government of India, today paid a courtesy visit to Governor Droupadi Murmu before his departure. Officials though called it a courtesy visit of the CS on the occasion of Holi, sources said that Gauba had extended good wishes to the Governor at the end of his one-year long tenure as CS of Jharkhand.
Central Deputation of the Chief Secretary, though, has put a serious work before the government to fill up the top post in the State. And, the decision seems to be going very tough with a couple of CS rank officers going to retire soon.
The State has four CS rank posts – Chief Secretary, Development Commissioner, DG (SKIPA) and member Revenue Board. Apart from this, there are four ex-cadre posts of the rank in the State that are presently manned by four senior officials.
After Guaba’s departure and Additional CS Sajal Chakraverty’s retirement on March 31, two posts will be vacant. Another post will fall vacant after April 30 when DG (SKIPA) Sudhir Prasad retires. At present five CS rank officers are manning the ex-cadre posts, while the post of Development Commissioner is in additional charge of Principal Secretary, Finance, Amit Khare.
Sources said that the meeting for promotion of 1985 batch IAS officer Amit Khare has already been completed and it is just a formality to get the notification issued. On the other hand, 1983 batch IAS NN Pandey and Rajbala Verma are already holding the Additional CS posts alongwith 1984 batch officer UP Singh. Another IAS of 1984 batch RK Shrivastava has come back after Central deputation, yet his promotion is likely to take some more time.
If sources are to be believed the government may choose the new CS of the state among UP Singh, Amit Khare and Rajbala Verma. The decision will be taken in a couple of days after the government resumes work, said sources.