Chandigarh: The post of the Principal Secretary to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has been vacant since Arun Kumar Gupta’s retirement on 30 September. In another two months, the Chief Secretary’s post will fall vacant too, as Anurag Rastogi retires on 31 December after two extensions.
With the top rung of its bureaucracy thinning out, Haryana has now written to the Centre seeking repatriation of four IAS officers who are on central deputation. The state has cited a shortage of officers as the reason.
A senior officer in the Haryana government confirmed to The Print that Haryana has sought repatriation of four of its IAS officers: V. Umashankar (1993 batch), Rakesh Gupta (1997), Nitin Kumar Yadav (2000) and Vikas Gupta (2001).
It is not yet known whether the Centre will release all four officers.
Currently serving as Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Umashankar is being seen in bureaucratic circles as a future Chief Secretary. Due to retire on 30 June, 2028, he will have one and a half years of service left if the government decides to name him as Rastogi’s successor..
A close confidant of the BJP government in Haryana, Umashankar was the chief minister’s Additional Principal Secretary from October 2018 to October 2020, and Principal Secretary from October 2020 to October 2024, before moving to the Centre. His wife and batchmate, Deepti Umashankar, is Secretary to the President of India.
Rakesh Gupta is Additional Secretary in the President’s Secretariat. He served as Additional Principal Secretary to the chief minister from October 2014 to October 2018, and is credited with heading several important innovative programmes of the BJP government, like Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates (CMGGAs), as its project director and nodal officer of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.
Nitin Kumar Yadav has been Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce since June 2024. In Haryana, he has been Secretary (Home), and earlier Home Secretary in the Chandigarh Administration.
Vikas Gupta is Commissioner, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. During the BJP government’s earlier term in the state, he was the CEO of the Parivar Pehchan Patra Authority.
The numbers explain the state’s anxiety. Haryana has 179 IAS officers against a sanctioned strength of 226, a shortfall of 47. In the top 20 of the state’s gradation list, ten officers are on central deputation.
Of the remaining, Pankaj Agarwal is in jail over his alleged role in the Rs 645-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case. Another, Vineet Garg, is named in the CBI chargesheet in the same case and is posted as ACS, Printing & Stationery. Mohammed Shayin, Saket Kumar and Ram Kumar Singh are the other three officers in the dock in connection with the bank fraud case, while Pardeep Kumar, the sixth named in the CBI chargesheet, has already retired.
The retirements in the coming three months will make it worse. Sanjay Joon, Commissioner of Faridabad division, retires on 31 October. Additional Chief Secretary Sudhir Rajpal and Abhilaksh Likhi, both on central deputation, and Geeta Bharti, Commissioner of Hisar division, all retire on 30 November. Rastogi follows on 31 December, and ACS Sumita Misra on 31 January 2027.
The state has already been stretching the few officers it has. Last fortnight, it exempted Rajpal from the curbs on powers that apply to officers in their last two months of service, citing “administrative exigencies”. Rajpal oversees Home, Jails, Environment, and Finance and Planning.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)