Power corridors witness an action-packed month-end as many race for key secretary posts

IT WILL be an action–packed month-end in Indian power corridors as 15 senior bureaucrats at the level of secretary, being posted at the Centre and states, will retire on September 30, allowing many others compete for key positions. Among those who are retiring this months include health secretary and 1972 batch UP cadre IAS Naresh Dayal, telecom secretary and 1973 batch UP cadre IAS Siddhartha Behura, secretary of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) and 1974 batch Manipur-Tripura cadre IAS Jarnail Singh to name a few. Amongst the high-profile ones retiring at the state level are chief secretary of Punjab and 1974 batch Punjab cadre IAS Ramesh Inder Singh and chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh and 1973 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS P Ramakanth Reddy. According to media reports, Ajit Kumar Seth, secretary, planning & coordination in the Cabinet Secretariat, Atul Chaturvedi of department of fertilisers, Anil Kumar of department of women and child development, and parliamentary affairs secretary P J Thomas are vying for telecom secretary’s post. Both the health and telecom secretary’s posts are quite significant in the backdrop of intervention related to swine flue and imminent auction of 3G spectrum for third generation mobile telephony. Telecom secretary Behura is tipped to be the chairman of C-DoT Alcatel-Lucent Research Centre which is a joint venture initiative between India’s telecom department and French company Alcatel-Lucent.

Justice Sinha is top contender to become TDSAT chairman Justice S B Sinha, former judge of the Supreme Court is tipped to become the next chairman of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) is taking a call on his name. Incumbent Justice Arun Kumar has already retired. Justice Sinha could be given a two-year term. According to reports, steel secretary P K Rastogi’s name has also been referred before ACC for the post of administrative member.