Chief secretary gets six-month extension

On his last day in office, chief secretary Jayantkumar Banthia got an extension of six months in his tenure. He will now retire on November 30.

On his last day in office, chief secretary Jayantkumar Banthia got an extension of six months in his tenure. He will now retire on November 30.

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Although the proposal by the state government was approved nearly 10 days ago, the official announcement was issued minutes before the end of his working hours on Friday.

Banthia, a 1977 batch IAS officer, was appointed as chief secretary a year ago, after the retirement of Ratnakar Gaikwad on May 31, 2012.

According to sources, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had proposed the extension of his post by six months, citing the drought situation in the state.

Banthia is the third chief secretary in recent times after Prem Kumar and Johny Joseph to get an extension. However, his extension has made the wait longer for his possible successors — additional chief secretaries (ACS) JS Saharia (ACS, school education) and Amitabh Rajan(ACS, home).

Meanwhile, other bureaucrats have been shuffled. IAS officer V Radha took over from Tanaji Satre as joint managing director of CIDCO. Prajakta Lavangare-Verma, deputy to the chief secretary, has moved to the shipping ministry as joint MD and retired additional chief secretary (home) Chandra Iyengar has been appointed member of Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.