New Chief Secy may be announced tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Since its formation in 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has had to face bureaucratic crises one after the other.

In the last four years, at least four Chief Secretaries have been transferred. And on Saturday, Anshu Prakash, perhaps the most controversial Delhi Chief Secretary in recent times, was transferred by the Centre to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Incumbent additional Chief Secretary Manoj Praida and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) Chairman Naresh Kumar are the two front-runners for the Chief Secretary position, which will likely be filled on Tuesday.

It may be mentioned that in 2015, the Centre had rejected the Arvind Kejriwal-led government's recommendation of appointing 1987-batch IAS officer Naresh Kumar as Chief Secretary.

Recently, the BJP-led Centre had – for the first time – appointed two IAS officers of the AGMUT cadre as additional Chief Secretaries, namely Anindo Majumdar of the 1985 and Parida of the 1986 batch.

Majumdar had been transferred to Delhi and posted as Financial Commissioner and is senior to Prakash, an officer of the 1986 AGMUT cadre.

Parida is currently posted as the Principal Secretary (Home), General Administration Department (GAD) and holds additional charge of the Public Works Department.

According to sources, the Union Home Ministry will likely announce Naresh Kumar as the Chief Secretary on Tuesday. Kumar is considered the blue-eyed of Union Home Minster Rajnath Singh.

Former Chief Secretary DM Spolia had been removed from the post when the AAP came to power in the Capital.