Thanks to the bitter controversy over the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has got its third chief in less than four months. Senior IAS officer Mandeep K. Bhandari (IAS:2001:AGMUT) has been appointed the new CBSE Chairperson.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued an order in this regard on September 25. According to the order, Bhandari’s appointment has been made in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to the Government of India by temporarily upgrading the post.
Bhandari replaces Lokhande Prashant Sitaram (IAS:2001:AGMUT), who had been moved to the Ministry of Home Affairs as Additional Secretary on July 2, but continued to act as an interim chief of the board.
Bhandari was serving as Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and also held the additional charge of Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board Before being appointed CBSE chairperson.
According to official records, he was appointed Principal Secretary to the J&K LG on March 6, 2023.
Bhandari has been a seasoned bureaucrat having spent nearly a decade, from 2009 to 2018, as Additional Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, one of the country’s largest religious institutions.
After it, he joined the Union Government as Private Secretary to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister and remained in that position until September 2018. After it, he was appointed Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare where he served for more than four years handling key policy and administrative responsibilities.
The appointment order of Bhandari comes 85 days after the ACC’s July 2 order that had assigned Lokhande the “additional charge” of CBSE chairperson while he continued as additional secretary in the Department of Home under the Union Home Ministry.
Thus, the latest order appointing Bhandari as chairperson effectively brings that interim arrangement to an end.
On June 2, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) issued a notification appointing Lokhande as the CBSE Chairperson and transferring Rahul Singh from the post to the agriculture ministry.
Interestingly, the June 2 notification was a regular appointment and did not describe the Lokhande’s assignment as an additional-charge arrangement unlike the July 2 order.
The frequent changes at the top of CBSE come in the backdrop of the controversy surrounding the board’s OSM system with complaints from examiners and officials alleging irregularities in the digital evaluation process.
The Centre had also constituted a one-member inquiry committee headed by former Union Secretary S. Radha Chauhan to examine the procurement of services related to the OSM system following allegations of irregularities.
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