With Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora retiring on September 30, the State Government is set to initiate the process for a new appointment to the post. Arora will have a tenure of one year and three months when she superannuates at the end of this month, having taken over as Chief Secretary on July 1, 2019.

Sources indicated that she is unlikely to get an extension in service.

Several senior IAS officers are in contention for the top bureaucratic post with intense lobbying in the run-up to the finalisation of the name by the month-end.

According to the seniority list, additional chief secretaries 1984-batch IAS officer and ACS (Printing and Stationery Department) Sunil Kumar Gulati and 1985-batch IAS officer and ACS (Home) Vijai Vardhan are the front runners for the post of chief secretary. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who has resumed work after being hospitalised for Covid infection, might even ignore the seniority to appoint the chief secretary of his choice, sources added.

According to government officials, several top senior bureaucrats are said to be in reckoning for the post. Merit coupled with a substantial period of service left would be the primary criteria for the nomination to the top post. The State Government is looking for an officer who has a clean record and can handle the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and also can execute the government welfare schemes effectively.

According to the seniority list, additional chief secretaries 1984-batch IAS officer Sunil Kumar Gulati and 1985-batch IAS officer and ACS (Home) Vijai Vardhan, 1986-batch IAS officer and ACS (Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department) Sanjeev Kaushal are the front runners for this post.

Other IAS officers whose names have are doing rounds include ACS (Fisheries department) Varinder Singh Kundu, ACS (Food and Civil Supply) PK Das, ACS (Forest) Alok Nigam, Dheera Khandelwal (1986-batch), Jyoti Arora, Devender Singh and T C Gupta (all 1987-batch) and and T V S N Prasad (1987-batch).

Meanwhile, with the appointment of Principal Secretary to the CM, Rajesh Khullar, as Executive Director of the World Bank, Government is also gearing up to fill this post. Khullar was PSCM for nearly five years, having joined in November 2015. Both posts will be filled from within the state administration, necessitating a major shakeup in the bureaucracy.