Haryana is most likely to get a new chief secretary (CS) as Vijai Vardhan, a 1985-batch IAS officer, the present CS will retire on November 30, 2021 and no indication pertinenting to his extension has emerged so far on the part of the state government. It is worth mentioning that four of the most senior IAS officers are in the fray for the post and the list includes the names Sanjeev Kaushal, PK Das, VS Kundu and Alok Nigam.
According to the sources, Sanjeev Kaushal who is an Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) and holds the charge of Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR), is being considered the strongest claimant for the post. In continuation to this, two strong reasons stand for the same. First, he played a crucial role in completion of dream projects of the Chief Minister, Manohar Lal which brought him in his good books. The second one is that among the all four claimants, he is the only one candidate with maximum tenure left which exists as an additional factor for him to be the strong candidate for the chair of Chief Secretary.
In this series, what is of utmost importance to mention is that among all four candidates, Alok Nigam will retire on 30 November along with present Chief Secretary Vijay Vardhan to be followed by the superannuation of PK Dass and VS Kundu in 2022. Although, no one can deny the administration capabilities of PK Das as an IAS official. He is among the most efficient senior most IAS officers in the state which is evident from the huge responsibilities he has taken so far.
Further, it is pertinent to mention that VS Kundu is also one of the most efficient officials which strengthens his position for the post of Chief Secretary. But another old issue emerges as a huge obstacle for him which is likely to weaken his position. A controversy between Kundu’s daughter and son of Subhash Brala, BJP stalwart and former State Party President had taken place in the past. The issue had become the talk of the town then and in wake of this, the state government is most likely to hesitate to make such an appointment