BK Agarwal is new chief secy of Himachal
SHIMLA : The Himachal Pradesh government on Sunday appointed Brij Kumar Agarwal as the new chief secretary of the state.
A 1985-batch IAS officer, Agarwal replaces Vineet Chawdhary who retired on Saturday. Notification regarding his appointment was issued in the afternoon.
He superseded five senior IAS officers, including 1983-batch Upma Chawdhary, AR Sihag, his wife Bharathi S Sihag and 1984-batch officers Tarun Shridhar and Arvind Mehta.
All the five senior IAS officers are currently on central deputations.
Former chief secretary Vidya Chander Pharka is also senior to Agarwal but he was nearer to ex-chief minister Virbhadra Singh and was replaced early this year after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in state.
Agarwal, who also returned from central deputation a few months ago, was holding charge of additional chief secretary, home and vigilance.
He was also holding additional charge of additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, financial commissioner (appeals), and principal resident commissioner to the Himachal Pradesh government at New Delhi.
Another 1985-batch officer additional chief secretary Shrikant Baldi, who is also the principal secretary to the chief minister, was also in the race for the post.
However, Agarwal was senior to him.
Sources said that none of the five officer senior to Agarwal showed any interest in becoming the chief secretary which paved the way for him.