MP: Veera Rana To Assume Additional Charge As Chief Secretary Today

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): A senior IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer of 1988 batch Veera Rana will assume the additional charge as Madhya Pradesh chief secretary on Thursday.

The Madhya Pradesh government issued a notice for the same on Wednesday night. Rana is currently posted as chairperson of the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE). She also holds the charge of the state agriculture production commissioner.

Rana will replace the outgoing CS Iqbal Singh Bains, who is retiring from the service on Thursday after getting two six-month extensions.

Bains, a 1985-batch IAS officer received the two extensions from December 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023 and again given extension in view of the state assembly polls from June 1, 2023 to November 30, 2023. Both the extensions were granted by the central government at the request of the state government.

Rana will be the second woman IAS officer to become the CS after IAS officer Nirmala Buch, who became Madhya Pradesh's first woman Chief Secretary in the early 1990s. Nirmala Buch passed away in July this year.

The state government also called a cabinet meeting to bid adieu to Bains at the state secretariat on Thursday.

Voting for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly took place on November 17 with a 77.15 percent voter turnout and the counting of votes would take place on December 3.