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Will DS Mishra get another extension as U.P. chief secretary?
The question may be answered in a day or two when the state government announces its decision before Mishra, currently in New Delhi to participate the third National Conference of Chief Secretaries, completes his second extended tenure on December 31.
Speculation is rife in the power circles here on whether Durga Shankar Mishra, a retired IAS officer of the 1984 batch, will get yet another extension as chief secretary (CS) of Uttar Pradesh or the state will have a new chief secretary in the New Year.
The question may be answered in a day or two when the state government announces its decision before Mishra, currently in New Delhi to participate the third National Conference of Chief Secretaries, completes his second extended tenure on December 31. In the meantime, many senior IAS officers aspiring to be the next chief secretary are keeping their fingers crossed.
Then posted as secretary, housing and urban development, at the Centre, Mishra was repatriated to his home state on December 29, 2021, only two days before his retirement from the IAS for his appointment as the CS the same day. The move dislodged RK Tiwari, his senior, from the position in a sudden and unexpected development.
Mishra’s appointment as the chief secretary as a big surprise to many as it was believed to be the first case of its kind in the country where an IAS officer was appointed chief secretary on the cusp of retirement. A year later, the government gave him a second extension not for six months but for full one year till December 31, 2023.
Though there are quite a few senior IAS officers in the race for the top position in the bureaucracy, people in the know of things said Mishra may get the third extension in a row.
“There are strong indications that DS Mishra may get the third extension as the chief secretary, possibly for the next six months in view of the Lok Sabha elections that are only four months away,” a senior bureaucrat said.
“And this is logical, too, because the government may not like to make the change at the top when so many important activities, including the Ram temple consecration, are lined up in the run-up to the polls,” he added.
Another IAS officer said, “DS Mishra appears to be poised to get another extension if his body language during the two-day National Conference of Chief secretaries in Delhi is anything to go by. He sounded confident and composed.”
“Otherwise also, there is no clarity on his successor,” he added.
Manoj Kumar Singh, an IAS officer of the 1988 batch and currently posted as agriculture production commissioner and industrial and infrastructure development commissioner, is believed to be another strong contender for the post.
Singh may get the chance to be appointed the next CS if Mishra fails to get the extension. But if Mishra gets an extension even for six months, the hopes of several IAS officers to become the CS will be dashed since most of them, barring Singh, will retire by then.
Among the IAS officers who will be superannuated in the next six months are Mahesh Kumar Gupta, Leena Nandan, Hemant Rao, S Radha Chauhan, Amit Mohan Prasad, Kalpana Awasthi, Anita Singh and Sudhir Garg. They belong to the 1987- 1990 batches. Manoj Kumar Singh is due to retire in July 2025 while Arun Kumar Singhal, a 1987-batch IAS officer currently on Central deputation, will remain in service till April 2025.
People in the know of things revealed that a woman social worker recently moved a petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the extensions given to Mishra and to pre-empt the next possible extension to him beyond December 31, 2023, citing many legal grounds.
“The Supreme Court, however, advised the petitioner to first go to the Allahabad high court for appropriate legal remedy,” they said.
“It is still not known whether the petitioner has moved the high court or not,” they added.
