The Punjab government on Friday appointed Vini Mahajan (IAS:1987:PB) as the first woman Chief Secretary of the state. She replaced the 1984 batch officer Karan Avtar Singh, who is slated to retire on August 31. She has also been given additional charge of Principal Secretary, Department of Personnel and Vigilance.
Prior to the new appointment, Mahajan was serving as the additional chief secretary of investment promotion, industries and commerce, information technology, and governance reforms and public grievances.
Karan Avtar Singh, who recently had a face-off with Punjab ministers, has now been posted as special chief secretary, governance reforms and public grievances.
Singh had courted a controversy last month after he had a run-in with ministers at an excise policy meeting. He was accused of allegedly misbehaving and humiliating the legislators following which the entire cabinet, led by finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, boycotted him and demanded his immediate removal. Though the matter was settled after Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh himself intervened to call a truce between the bureaucracy and ministers, the state government was looking for his replacement ever since.
The new chief secretary is the wife of Punjab DGP, Dinkar Gupta, also a 1987-batch IPS officer. This is for the first time that a couple is leading the administrative and law enforcement in the state.
