PM: Interviews 10 Secys before deciding on B K Chaturvedi

The Prime Minister’s move to ‘‘interview’’ each of the 10 Secretaries follows his letter to outgoing Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande earlier this week that he would like to go through bio-datas of all Secretaries being appointed by his government and, if need be, call them for a personal interaction.

Officials said that over the past two days, the PM spent 10-15 minutes with each Secretary. He had their bio-datas before him. In the past, a Prime Minister would simply be given a panel of names, prepared by the Department of Personnel, from which he could pick the Cabinet Secretary.

Until now Petroleum Secretary, Chaturvedi, a 1966 batch UP cadre IAS official, was number three in terms of seniority in the civil list: Pande will serve until November this year while Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterjee retires at the end of this month.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Chaturvedi said: ‘‘My first priority would be the common minimum programme (CMP). Nutrition and health is what I consider very vital for society. So is energy, security and drinking water. These are of great common and social concern. The other aspect is governance, question mark on civil services. We will chalk out further programmes as we go along.’’

Due to retire next month, Chaturvedi will now have a term of two years. He will take up his new assignment on Monday.

He had earlier served in the ministries of Human Resource Development and Commerce. He was Special Secretary, Economic Affairs, Chairman of State Trading Corporation, Secretary (Taxation) in Uttar Pradesh before becoming Petroleum Secretary in April 2002.

Chaturvedi’s appointment and the shunting of Pande to Secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat has set the stage for another senior-level reshuffle at the end of this month.

Pande went home after he was told of the government decision around noon. The notification was issued at 1.30 pm. The post of Secretary, Inter-State Council Secretariat will be upgraded to ex-officio Cabinet Secretary rank for Pande. His brother-in-law Vinod Pande, who was V P Singh’s Cabinet Secretary, had also moved to the Inter-State Council Secretariat after the government was voted out.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Secretary K Roy Paul, Personnel Secretary Arun Bhatnagar, Textiles Secretary S B Mohapatra, Tariff Commission Secretary R V Laxmi Ratan, West Bengal Chief Secretary Ashok Gupte and Delhi Chief Secretary Shailja Chandra will all retire on June 30.