Shimla: Barely twenty hours after he was moved out of the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) to the HP State Pollution Control Board as its Chairman, the 1988-batch IAS officer Sanjay Gupta has been given additional charge of the state’s Chief Secretary.
He replaces 1990-batch Prabodh Saxena, whose six-month extended term as the Chief Secretary had ended on Tuesday.
Saxena has now been posted as Chairman of the HPSEB Ltd in place of Sanjay Gupta. He will have a year’s term on the Board, virtually coinciding with the term of the state government led by Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.
One may well question why the state government has not appointed a regular Chief Secretary, much like the case of the Director General of Police, where Ashok Tiwari, a 1993-batch IPS officer, already holds the rank of Director General.
This situation in Himachal Pradesh will create uncertainty within both the administration and the police, which the chief minister refers to as ‘Vyavastha Parivartan.’
On Tuesday, a state government notification said Saxena, a 1990-batch IAS officer, “will work under the overall administrative control and supervision of the Chief Minister and shall be equivalent in rank, status, and responsibility to the post of Chief Secretary.
Interestingly, Saxena had initially eyed the post of Chairman, Himachal Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority, but his candidature was turned down by a selection panel due to a pending CBI case against him in Delhi.
Thereafter, the outgoing Chief Secretary made a second bid to take over the position of the HP State Electricity Regulatory Authority but was unable to do so due to a High Court petition filed against him questioning the state government’s decision to grant him a six-month service extension.