Fourteen officers of the State Administrative Service (SAS), including Chhattisgarh Public Relations Director Ajay Aggarwal, have been elevated to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The promotions were finalized during the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting held in Delhi today, attended by Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain (1989-batch IAS officer), Additional Chief Secretary Renu Pillai (1991-batch IAS officer), and General Administration Department Secretary Mukesh Bansal (2004-batch IAS officer).
The state government initially recommended three dozen officers for consideration; however, the cases of three officers remain unresolved. Mr. Saumya Chaurasia, implicated in the coal scam, is currently in jail, while Ms. Aarti Vasnik faces an FIR in the PSC scam case and is under departmental investigation. The promotion of Mr. Tirthraj Agarwal is subject to an ongoing judicial case, although the state government has granted him a clean chit in its internal inquiry.
This round of promotions has also addressed pending cases, with Santosh Dewangan and Heena Netam—overlooked in the previous promotion cycle—now being included.
The promoted officers are:
- Santosh Dewangan
- Heena Netam
- Ashwani Dewangan
- Renuka Srivastava
- Ashutosh Pandey
- Ajay Agarwal
- Rita Srivastava
- Lokesh Chandrakar
- Prakash Surve
- Gajendra Thakur
- Leena Kosam
- Tunja Salam
- Virendra Bahadur Panchbhai
- Saumil Choubey
