K. Ratnaprabha, S.K. Pattanayak probable candidates, say sources.
K. Ratnaprabha
Bengaluru: Karnataka is all set to get a new chief secretary as the three-month extension given to incumbent chief secretary, Mr Kaushik Mukherjee is set to end on December 31. In fact, Mr Mukherjee was supposed to retire on September 30 but the state government sought three months extension for him citing the drought and other administrative reasons. As of now, Mr Mukherjee has not sought further extension.
Sources close to the chief minister's office told Deccan Chronicle that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has to pick either Ms K Ratnaprabha (1981 batch) who is presently posted as additional chief secretary, Department of Industry and Commerce or Mr S.K. Pattanayak (1982 batch) currently serving as additional chief secretary in the Home Department.
There are five additional chief secretaries senior to Ms Ratnaprabha and Mr Pattanayak- Mr Arvind Jadhav (1978 batch), Upendra Tripathy (1980 batch), Mr Anup K Pujari (1980 batch), Mr Subhas Chandra Khuntia (1981 batch) and Mr V Umesh (1981 batch) but three of them are currently on central deputation and two others have less than a year of service left.
Sources said if Ms Ratnaprabha's name is considered, she will be the third woman chief secretary, after Ms Teresa Bhattacharya and Ms Malathi Das. Sources said one of the reasons why the CM was planning to make Ms Ratnaprabha or Mr Pattanayak chief secretary is a long tenure. Ms Ratnaprabha would have a long tenure of over two years as she would retire only on March 31, 2018. As far as Mr Pattanayak is concerned, his retirement date is September 30, 2018.
After the retirement of Mr S.V. Ranganath, both Mr Mukherjee and Mr Umesh were in the race for chief secretary. But the government chose Mr Mukherjee. Mr Umesh, additional chief secretary (development) lost in the race for the key post. Besides, Mr Umesh is due to retire on May 30, 2016 and the government is not interested in frequent replacements of the head of administration.
With most senior IAS officer of the rank of additional chief secretary not interested in coming back to Karnataka to take up the CS's post, it would not be difficult for the CM to choose the right candidate. However, the CM has powers to overrule the seniority of IAS officers to pick up the candidate of his choice as it had happened several times in Karnataka. Besides, the chief secretary is a selection post. Usually, all senior IAS officers of the rank of ACS are empanelled and the Cabinet selects one among them. If Mr Siddaramaiah goes by his Ahinda (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalits) objective, Ms Ratnaprabha has a better chance as she belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC).
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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