The embattled Hemant Soren Government on Wednesday gave additional charge of the Chief Secretary to 1980 batch IAS officer Sajal Chakrabarty ending days of suspense. Chakrabarty, additional chief secretary in the department of civil aviation, has beaten at least four IAS officers who were in the race, including Sudhir Prasad, Rajiv Gauba,
RS Poddar and A K Pandey, to succeed Ram Sevak Sharma. The incumbent Chief Secretary has been appointed I-T Secretary at the Centre.
The State Government notified his appointment after the Election Commission gave its green signal. His appointment has surprised the babudom since he had always remained in the limelight for wrong reasons. He had been convicted for four-and-a-half year in a fodder scam case by a special CBI court in July 2008 but the Jharkhand High Court later acquitted him.
More recently, he had courted controversy after three persons were killed when a boat carrying 15 persons, including Chakrabarty capsized in Ranchi lake. He had been rescued by local residents who had gone fishing in Ranchi lake. Interestingly, the Chief Minister had on Tuesday recommended Sudhir Prasad's name but withdrew it minutes before the Personnel department was going to notify it.
Sources, however, said that Hemant Soren appointed Chakrabarty in order to keep Mamata Banerjee led TMC in good humour. The two TMC MlAs-Bandhu Tirkey and Chamra linda-supporting the Government, hold key to the government's survival. On Tuesday, Tirkey had asked the Chief Minister to go for the floor test. But today, TMC convener Dilip Chaterjee