Punjab Government Appoints Vini Mahajan as its First Women Chief Secretary

Capt Amarinder Singh’s government appointed Vini Mahajan as Punjab’s First Women Chief Secretary who will be heading the bureaucracy in the state. Mahajan, a 1987-batch IAS officer has replaced Karan Avtar Singh of the 1984 batch who was due to retire in August this year.

A recent face-off between Cabinet Ministers and Karan Avtar Singh is believed to be the reason of his replacement. Singh will now be taking over as Special Chief Secretary, Governance Reforms.

Vini Mahajan has 33 years of experience in multiple key positions in both Central and State governments and has been playing a key role in the government’s response to the Covid crisis as the Chairperson, Health Sector Response and Procurement Committee.

Vini Mahajan’s appointment superseding five officers has not gone well with the opposition and section of bureaucracy alike.  Sources said a section of bureaucracy wanted Vishwajeet Khanna to be made the new Chief Secretary as he retires in June next year.

“The appointment of Vini Mahajan as Punjab chief secretary, superseding five senior IAS officers, is ‘unconstitutional’ and against lad down norms of official working,” former Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira said on Saturday.

Addressing media in Chandigarh, Khaira accused Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh of making “erroneous, wrongful and unconstitutional appointments” at his whims and fancies.

Mahajan’s appointment is also seen as a repeat of her husband and IPS officer Dinkar Gupta’s  appointment last year as head the Punjab Police by superseding five senior IPS officers. Her appointment also means that for the first time a wife-husband duo will be heading both bureaucracy and police in the state.

Her appointment also makes it for the first time that both Punjab and neighbouring Haryana’s Chief Secretaries are Women. Haryana’s current Chief Secretary is Keshni Anand Arora.