Karnataka govt appoints senior-most IAS officer Vandita Sharma as chief secretary

Vandita Sharma, 58, is a 1986-batch IAS officer, who is currently an additional chief secretary to the government and development commissioner, was among nine senior IAS officers shortlisted by the government to be appointed as the chief secretary.

Sharma will be the fourth woman to serve as the chief secretary of Karnataka after Teresa Bhattacharya, Malati Das, and Ratna Prabha. (Twitter/MPRBJP)

The BJP government in Karnataka has chosen the senior-most IAS officer in the state bureaucracy, Vandita Sharma, to be the new chief secretary of the state when the incumbent chief secretary P Ravikumar leaves office on May 31.

Vandita Sharma, 58, is a 1986-batch IAS officer, who is currently an additional chief secretary to the government and development commissioner, was among nine senior IAS officers shortlisted by the government to be appointed as the chief secretary.

Sharma will be the fourth woman to serve as the chief secretary of Karnataka after Teresa Bhattacharya, Malati Das, and Ratna Prabha. A meeting of the state cabinet on May 12 had authorised Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to take a call on picking the chief secretary from a list of nine officers shortlisted by a cabinet committee.

Story continues below this ad

Two weeks back, state law minister J C Madhuswamy had said, “A list of nine names has been recommended. The cabinet has empowered the CM to take the final decision on who will be the next chief secretary.”

Bommai, who returned to Bengaluru Friday, picked the senior-most IAS officer to be the chief secretary. Sharma, who is considered to be an upright and forthright officer, was in contention for the chief secretary’s post along with state home secretary Rajneesh Goel and state finance secretary ISN Prasad (Vandita Sharma’s husband).

Sharma was on central deputation for a few years and served as an additional secretary and financial adviser in the department of space before returning to Karnataka in 2017.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram