Cabinet Secy Chandrasekhar gets another extension

As a measure of confidence and trust in the present Cabinet Secretary,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given an unprecedented one more year extension to K M Chandrasekhar,a 1970 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer,by amending the fixed tenure of country’s top bureaucrat from existing three to four years. Chandrasekhar was expected to retire on June 14,2010.

Government sources told The Indian Express that the decision to amend the relevant rules was done over the weekend as a result of which Chandrasekhar will continue to remain in service next June. This also means that none of the 1972 or 1973 batch IAS officers will make it to the Cabinet Secretary grade including hot contender Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla. Another bureaucrat Sudha Pillai,a 1972 batch officer,also was overlooked by the government but she has now been made Member-Secretary,Planning Commission in the Minister of State rank.

While the subject of debate in the babudom is whether Chandrasekhar has been given extension to ensure that Pulok Chatterji,a 1974 batch officer and presently with a Bretton-Woods institution in the US ,succeeds him,the chances are quite remote. As seniority goes,Pulok is number 74 in a total batch of 87 IAS officers,of which no less than 20 would be in service in case Chandrasekhar retires next year and is not given another extension.