CM yet to appoint chief secy

Mumbai: Chief secretary Nitin Kareer retired on Saturday, chief minister Eknath Shinde is yet to appoint his successor. An IAS officer of the 1988 batch, was to retire on March 31, however, he was given a three-month extension, which ended today.
Additional chief secretaries Sujata Saunik, Rajesh Kumar and Iqbal Singh Chahal are the front runners for the top post.
Saunik is the senior most bureaucrat in the state, in fact, when Kareer was appointed CS, he superseded her. In the event, Saunik is appointed CS, she will be the first woman to lead the bureaucracy.
Senior bureaucrats expressed shock and surprise over the prolonged delay in appointment of the CS.
“It was wrong to wait till the last day of the retirement of the outgoing CS. We felt that Shinde will break the tradition of his predecessors, but he is following them,” a former CS said.