Surprising everyone, the Manohar Lal Khatter-led state government appointed two retired IAS officers to key roles in Haryana. Senior IAS Rajesh Kumar Khullar has been appointed Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister only a day after completing nearly 35 years of service. He retired as Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management and Consolidation Departments. Likewise, DS Dhesi, who was relieved from the post of Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister in the morning, was given a new appointment by Friday evening. He has been appointed Principal Advisor of Urban Development.
Khullar, the new CPS to the Chief Minister, also worked in the World Bank and held major portfolios before his retirement. He served as Finance Commissioner of Revenue (FCR), and Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Department of School Education and Information, Public Relations, Language and Culture. In September 2020 he was appointed Executive Director in the Washington DC office of the World Bank for a period of three years. Prior to this international assignment, he played a key role as Principal Secretary to CM Khattar for about five years. During his tenure, he came up with several significant decisions in taking the state towards development working as Director in the Department of School Education and then in the Department of Agriculture. It was then that Haryana became the forefront state in India in terms of wheat production, overtaking Punjab. He has also been the District Magistrate of Sonipat and Rohtak during his service.
Khullar has been in the good books of previous governments in the past as well. In 2019, along with the Principal Secretary, the CM also assigned him the Home Secretary post. Additional responsibilities included the Public Relations and Language Department and the Jail, Criminal Investigation and Justice Department. Khullar is responsible for reforms in recruitment, transfers and CLU (land use change) which were once heavily corrupt. Dhesi was also posted as Deputy Personal Secretary in the Bansilal government for two years. After promotion in this government, he was made Assistant Personal Secretary, holding the same portfolio in OP Chautala’s INLD government as well, completing a tenure of five years.
