‘Vijay Bhaskar led Covid fight from the front’

BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Secretary, Takkalapati Mahadeva Naidu Vijay Bhaskar, will retire on December 31 after a two-and-a-half-year stint as the top bureaucrat. He was appointed as CS in July 2018. He belongs to the 1983 batch of the IAS. Known for being a workaholic, his colleagues say that Bhaskar had taken just two days’ casual leave for his daughter’s marriage.

Vijay Bhaskar has been at the forefront of handling the pandemic in the state, say colleagues. “He is a very competent, efficient, hardworking and sincere officer. He led from the front to make sure that the supply of essential services was not hampered during the lockdown. He did a lot of work for e-governance, which came in handy during the lockdown,” said a senior IAS officer.

Rajneesh Goel, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, said Bhaskar worked hard to get the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway project on track. “The project would have been delayed by two years if Bhaskar had not pursued it so diligently. He held regular meetings with the National Highways Authority of India. He is a simple man but a hard task master. He is an asset to the State,” said Goel.

“The Chief Secretary is a dedicated person. He is a hardworking officer and has an eye for detail,” said Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Commerce & Industry and Administrator, BBMP. Bhaskar was appointed as the Commissioner of the BBMP before he was appointed as the CS.

He had a short tenure of 146-days as BBMP chief. A student of  Baldwin Boys School, Bhaskar went on to do his post-graduation in Economics from BITS, Pilani, and an MBA from the University of Birmingham before joining the IAS.

Meanwhile, Bhaskar turned emotional at his felicitation at the cabinet meeting on Monday. CM B S Yediyurappa draped a shawl around his shoulders and presented him with a silver plate.