Jyotsana Varma Ray of Jharkhand cadre deemed to have resigned from IAS

Jyotsana Varma Ray, 1992 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS, who has been on unauthorised leave for a long period after her tenure in Asian Development Bank in Manila had ended, will no longer be in the service. The Centre on Friday issued a notification (to be published in part-I, section-II of Gazette of India) saying that the 1992 IAS is “deemed to have resigned from the Indian Administrative Service” with effect from August 12, 2015. The notification reads as follows:

“The President is pleased to direct that Ms. Jyotsana Varma Ray, a member of the Indian Administrative Service, borne on the Cadre of (JH:1992) is deemed to have resigned from the Indian Administrative Service with effect from 12.08.2015 in terms of rules 7(2)(a) read with 7(2)(c) of the All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955.”

The 49-year-old IAS officer, originally belonging to Chandigarh, was in Manila after she was posted as deputy director general in Asian Development Bank in October, 2009. But she had never returned to join the service. 

According to local media reports published in Jharkhand last month, Ms Varma Ray asked for VRS, but the government had refused to extend her any retirement benefits because of her unauthorised leave. 

It has become a common practice now that IAS officers usually leave the service mid-way after getting a foreign assignment. 

Ms Varma Ray completed post-graduation in economics before getting selected as IAS. Before moving to Manila, she served as the CVO in Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation Ltd. 

Earlier, she had served as director in the DoPT and in the department of expenditure under the ministry of finance. He had an earlier innings in the department of economic affairs (DEA) under the ministry of finance between 1997 and 2000. She was an under secretary then. 

In the state, she served as deputy commissioner in Bokaro district, among other postings. She also served at Nalanda district. 

In a 2010 column by author and journalist Khushwant Singh written for The Tribune, there was a mention of Ms Varma Ray. The author said, he had not heard the name Haruki Murakami “till Jyotsna Varma — who is now posted in Manila with Asian Bank — asked me if I had read anything by him”. “When I told her I had not heard the name, she said: ‘You have missed something; he is great reading. I will send you one of his books.’ That very evening a collection of short stories entitled Blind Willows: Sleeping Warrior (Vintage International) was dropped in my apartment”— Singh wrote in his column.