Home ministry’s leading woman IAS Anita Chaudhary appointed as secretary of land resources department

ANY debate over no woman bureaucrat being made in-charge of sensitive ministries such as cabinet secretariat, home ministry or defence ministry gets incomplete if there is no mention of a 1976 batch IAS, Anita Chaudhary. For over three years now, this Haryana cadre officer has handled a number of sensitive issues related to internal security, thereby becoming an epitome of woman-power in bureaucracy. 

Ms Chaudhary, now a special secretary at the ministry of home affairs, would take over as secretary to the department of land resources under the ministry of rural development. She is replacing Rita Sinha who is retiring on July 31 this month.

Hailing from Maharashtra, Ms Chaudhary is a post graduate in English literature, with yet another masters degree in social science from an UK university. In 1980s, she had a long innings in Centre’s rural development ministry, first as under secretary and then as deputy secretary. In 2001, she had a brush with a controversy too when Medical Council of India (MCI) raised objections to Ms Chaudhary’ appointment as director general of Pandit BD Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) as she is a non-medical person.

Ms Chaudhary was noticed more when she was appointed an additional secretary in the home ministry which is always considered to be a male bastion. As several home ministry officers would concede, Ms Chaudhary has done a commendable job in the North Block demolishing the myth that only male officers would do a better job in a ministry like home.

(In Picture: Ms Chaudhary visiting the DNA Laboratory of LNJN-National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science)

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