Andhra Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das’s tenure extended by three months

The tenure of Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das has been officially extended by three more months.The Union government on June 26 acceded to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's request for extending the tenure of Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das by three months, until September 30. "I am directed to...convey the approval of the Central Government for granting extension in service to Das," Kuldeep Chaudhary, Under Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training wrote .

Aditya Nath Das, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the 1987 batch was supposed to superannuate on June 30, but will be in office for another three months, until September 30. CM Jagan wrote to the Union government requesting the extension on May 17. Aditya Nath Das was appointed as the Chief Secretary earlier in  December 2020, replacing Nilam Sawhney, who was then appointed as Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister (in the rank of a Cabinet Minister) upon her retirement. 

CM Jagan chose Das for the post of Chief Secretary by overlooking five IAS officers of senior batches (1984-86), besides two of Das’s batch mates. At the time of his appointment itself, it was speculated that he might get an extension, similar to his predecessor Nilam Sawhney who served an extended tenure of six months in two spells of extension. Later in March 2021, Nilam Sawhney was appointed as the State Election Commissioner (SEC), after the tenure of outgoing SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar ended on March 31. Ramesh Kumar’s tenure saw a prolonged, bitter dispute between the SEC and the Jagan government, over the issue of conducting local body polls in the state during the pandemic. 

Nilam Sawhney, a 1984 batch IAS officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre, was the first woman Chief Secretary of the state. She was repatriated to the Andhra cadre on the request of the Jagan government in 2019  while working as a Secretary of the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. 

With IANS inputs 

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