The government of Chandigarh (UT) finds itself in a predicament as many top bureaucratic posts in its administration shall become vacant soon. Lately, they had to part with Mr. Nitin Kumar Yadav (2000-batch Haryana cadre IAS) from the post of UT home secretary, the next in line is Mr. Vijay Namdeorao Zade (2002-batch IAS officer), who shall be relieved from his duty as UT finance secretary on June 19th.
Two other senior IAS officers’ are meeting their superannuation later this year. Ms. Anindita Mitra’s term (2007-batch IAS officer), the incumbent MC commissioner, shall end in August, and UT tourism secretary Ms. Hargunjit Kaur’s (2013-batch IAS) term shall end in November. The tenure of Chandigarh deputy commissioner, Mr. Vinay Pratap Singh (2011-batch IAS officer), shall also end in November 2024.
Realizing the predicament and in a bid to solve it, the Chandigarh (UT) Administration wrote to the other state governments seeking tenure extensions for Officer Zade (by two months) and Officer Kaur (by one year). Earlier, it had sent an extension request for Officer Mitra, but the Punjab government is yet to respond.
The tenure of Officer Zade with the UT was to end on May 19th, but a month’s extension was given as he was also the chief electoral officer of Chandigarh. For the replacement of Zade, the administration has already received a panel of three IAS officers’ names from Punjab and has sent the same to the Centre for approval — they are Mr. Amit Dhaka (2006-batch IAS), Mr. Mohammed Tayyab (2007-batch IAS), and Mr. Amit Kumar (2008-batch IAS).
The UT has also sought panel names for the replacement of Officer Yadav and Officer Singh. Under the Ministry of Home Affairs directions, Officer Yadav was relieved from the Chandigarh administration on June 13th to enable him to join his new assignment with the Government of India. Officer Yadav has been appointed as the joint secretary in the Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries.
