Bhopal: Chief Secretary appointment remains as secret as Modi’s Demonetization

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): There is a saying about Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he keeps his cards close to the chest unless he takes a decision on any issue.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seems to have started working on the pattern of Modi. Chief Secretary (CS) Iqbal Singh Bains is going to retire on November 30 but the Chief Minister is yet to put up his cards on the table in connection with the appointment of the new incumbent.

There are speculations about the appointment of the new Chief Secretary. There is a possibility of Bains getting an extension, besides the names of 1989-batch IAS officers Mohd Suleman and Anurag Jain are being discussed for the coveted post.

Although only one day is left for Bains’s retirement, nobody knows what is on Chouhan’s mind on the issue. All the three officers – Bains, Jain and Suleman – are considered close to the Chief Minister.

Ergo, the state bureaucracy is agog about the Chief Minister’s silence over the issue. It is happening for the first time in the state that the name of a new Chief Secretary has not come out, though only one day is left for the retirement of Bains.

According to sources, the Chief Minister has already taken a decision, but only a few officers close to him know about it.

Besides Chouhan, Bains, principal secretary of the Chief Minister Manish Rastogi and principal secretary (personnel) Dipti Gaur Mukherjee are acquainted with it.

The Chief Minister was in Delhi to campaign for the elections to civic polls, but he did not discuss Chief Secretary’s appointment with anyone there.

Although Chouhan was in Delhi, he did not hold any meeting with Jain.

Earlier, Chouhan disclosed his decision on the appointment to DGP only a day before the retirement of the then director general of police Vivek Jauhari. Director general of police, Sudhir Saxena, was appointed to the DGP. About the appointment of the new Chief Secretary, it is said that the Chief Minister will break his silence only on November 30.