Vijay Dev appointed Delhi’s chief secretary after Anshu Prakash goes to Centre

Vijay Dev , who will succeed Anshu Prakash as Delhi’s chief secretary, is currently posted as the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi, his second stint as the top official in the national capital’s poll panel.

Vijay Dev, a 1987 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh,Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories) cadre, will be the next chief secretary of Delhi. Dev will succeed Anshu Prakash, who was transferred to the Union ministry of telecommunications on November 17.

The appointment of Delhi’s new chief secretary, Vijay Dev, was confirmed by a senior official in the Union home ministry.(Reuters)

The appointment was confirmed by a senior official in the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA).

Dev , an electrical engineer, is currently posted as the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Delhi, his second stint as the top official in the national capital’s poll panel.

Before being appointed CEO, Delhi, in March 2016, Dev was posted as the advisor to the then administrator of Chandigarh Kaptan Singh Solanki since December 2014. The administrator in Chandigarh, a union territory, is the governor of Punjab and Haryana.

The elected Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of Delhi led by Arvind Kejriwal has been at loggerheads with outgoing chief secretary Prakash.

The relationship between Prakash, who was appointed as Delhi chief secretary in December 2017, and the AAP government took an ugly turn on February 29 when he was allegedly assaulted by AAP legislators at chief minister Kejriwal’s residence during a midnight meeting.

Prakash filed a complaint with the police, alleging that he was beaten up by party MLAs in front of Kejriwal and deputy CM Manish Sisodia -- a charge the party and the elected government denied. A charge sheet has been filed against 11 AAP leaders -- including Kejriwal and Sisodia -- by the police. The party describes it as “bogus”.