Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has decided that 1985 batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer Rajendra Kumar Tiwari will be the chief secretary of the state. Tiwari was the interim chief secretary for over five months
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh, the state with the largest number of bureaucrats in the country finally got a full-time chief secretary. Consequently, after being the acting chief secretary, the Yogi Adityanath Government appointed 1985 batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer Rajendra Kumar Tiwari as chief secretary of the state.
Tiwari also held the post of agriculture production commissioner. Tiwari has been rewarded for the successful execution of the mega event Defense Expo 2020 held in the state capital last week, which was applauded by PM Narendra Modi.
Tiwari was made interim chief secretary of the state after the retirement of Anoop Chandra Pandey in September last year. Pandey, who is trusted by CM Yogi Adityanath, already received three months extension after completion of his service.
The appointment of Tiwari has now ended all the speculation surrounding the victor of this coveted post.
During the last five months, many names were in the air for the head of bureaucracy. But at the end of it all, CM Yogi Adityanath displayed trust in Tiwari.
Earlier, Durga Shankar Mishra and Sanjay Agrawal emerged the two main strong contenders for this post. Both the officers from the 1984 batch were serving as deputed by the Centre and the state government sent a letter asking them to be relieved for a new assignment in the state but the Modi government did not consider their names. This is because, both the officers are serving as the secretary in key ministries in the Centre and have the responsibility of implementing crucial projects of the Narendra Modi government.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath did not want to create any controversy after the name of Sanjay Aggarwal came up in a scam. Therefore, after a gap of five months, he settled on Rajendra Kumar Tiwari becoming the full-time chief secretary.
However, the state government has transferred 15 IAS officers to different departments including the Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC). The government appointed Alok Sinha as APC, which is second to the top post in state bureaucracy.
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