Keshni Anand Arora is new Haryana chief secretary

Keshni Anand Keshni is only the fifth woman IAS officer in Haryana to have been appointed to the top bureaucratic post. Her two elder sisters, Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary (2005-06) and Urvashi Gulati (2009-12), have also served as chief secretaries.

The Haryana government on Sunday appointed 1983-batch IAS officer Keshni Anand Arora as the new chief secretary. She replaces DS Dhesi who retired on Sunday after having an over four-year long stint.

Haryana government on Sunday appointed 1983-batch IAS officer Keshni Anand Arora as the new chief secretary. (HT Photo)

Keshni is only the fifth woman IAS officer in Haryana to have been appointed to the top bureaucratic post. Her two elder sisters, Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary (2005-06) and Urvashi Gulati (2009-12), have also served as chief secretaries.

Meenaxi was, in fact, the first woman IAS officer in Haryana to have held the post of chief secretary. The other two woman IAS officers to have held the top bureaucratic post was Promila Issar and Shakuntala Jakhu

Being the senior-most IAS officer in the state, Keshni was the obvious choice to succeed Dhesi. She will have a tenure of 14 months as the chief secretary. While she will handle general administration, personnel, training parliamentary affairs, administrative reforms department, the charge of the vigilance department has not been handed to the new chief secretary.

The chief secretary by virtue of the office holds the charge
of the vigilance department in Haryana.

However, Keshni’s predecessor, DS Dhesi was divested of the vigilance charge on the pretext that he was not able to pay much attention to vigilance-related matters.