KALABURAGI: With only two senior IAS officers, Mr T.M. Vijay Bhaskar and Mr D.V. Prasad, both Additional Chief Secretaries – in the race, the selection of the new state Chief Secretary this time will in all probability be a smooth affair for the new coalition government led by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
But the state government will lose the services of one of the officers if either of them is appointed for the coveted post as the one who is deprived of the post, will join the Union Government.
Both officers have already been empanelled for deputation , according to well placed sources. The present chief secretary, K Ratna Prabha, who was given an extension of three months in view of the Assembly polls, is due to retire on June 30 and is unlikely to be given an extension. Although it has been a practice to appoint the senior most IAS officer as Chief Secretary, there are precedents of governments overlooking seniority and appointing a junior officer for the top post in the state bureaucracy.
Although the government has the prerogative to make the appointment, such appointments have created upheavals in the bureaucracy. For example in February 2008 when Mr K Sudhakar Rao was appointed Chief Secretary superseding four IAS officers, some officers senior to him such as Mr Dilip Rau, who was the Chairman of Bangalore Development Authority and Administrator of BBMP, challenged the appointment in the Central Administrative Tribunal on the ground that it was “ illegal, arbitary, capricious and discriminatory”. The appointment of Mr Sudhakar created so much bad blood among the IAS fraternity that none of the IAS officers attended the ceremony where he took charge and even the customary tea party was put off. A similar situation arose when Mr S.V. Ranganath, who was on deputation in the Union Government was appointed Chief Secretary in October 2009 following the retirement of Mr Sudhakar Rao.
Though Mr Ranganath was ninth in the seniority list of state-cadre IAS officers, he was picked for the post. This time Mr Vijay Bhaskar ( 1983 batch IAS officer) and Mr Prasad ( 1984 batch) are the frontrunners for the top post though there are two officers-Latha Krishna Rau and S.K. Pattanayak, who are senior to them. While Latha Rau has been deputed to the Union Government as Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Mr Pattanayak is the Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, Co-operation and Farmers Welfare in the Agriculture Ministry. While Ms Rau is due to retire on May 31, Mr Pattanayak is due to retire on September 30.
