Continuity, competence guiding factors in chief secy’s appointment: Punjab CM

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday said continuity and competence were the guiding factors in the appointment of the new chief secretary.

Addressing a press conference, Amarinder said the government did not “pass over” (supersede) anyone and looked at continuity while naming Vini Mahajan, a 1997-batch IAS officer, as the chief secretary. “I wanted continuity. I do not go by religion or caste,” he said before going into details.

Mahajan was appointed as the first woman chief secretary of Punjab on Friday. Her husband Dinkar Gupta, also a 1987-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, is the state police chief.

The CM said all other senior officers would retire before the 2022 (the term of the present govt ends in March 2022). “KBS Sidhu is the seniorost in the state, but will retire in June 2021. Arun Goel and C Roul are on central deputation. Kalpana Mittal Barua and Satish Chandra are also retiring in a few months,” he said.

The CM said he had no one other than Mahajan who would have carried on till 2022. If someone is trying to make noise about why not a Sikh officer, I want to make it clear that we do not look at it that way,” he said, volunteering information on the chief secretary’s appointment in response to a query relating to Dinkar Gupta.

The CM was asked whether Gupta is planning to go on central deputation after his empanelment for the post of director general or DG equivalent at the centre and he responded in the negative. “I won’t let him go. He is a good officer,” he said.