Senior IAS officer Nilam Sawhney has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh. An order was issued by the General Administration Department on Wednesday appointing Sawhney, a 1984 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, to the top post.
Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, Neerabh Kumar Prasad, was holding the additional charge as the Chief Secretary since the government shunted out L.V. Subrahmanyam on November 4.
Sawhney is the first woman Chief Secretary of the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh.
The Centre had sent back Sawhney to her cadre state on Monday following a request by the state government.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved repatriation of Sawhney, who was serving as Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment.
Her predecessor, Subrahmanyam's exit, was controversial as it had come after a spat with another senior bureaucrat, Praveen Prakash, presently serving as the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Subrahmanyam had served a show-cause notice to Praveen Prakash for exhibiting ‘grave misconduct’ and ‘misbehaviour’ and resorting to ‘willful insubordination’. He sought an explanation on ‘violation of business rules and conduct rules’. Within days, orders were issued by Praveen Prakash, shunting out Subrahmanyam.
The former Chief Secretary made two main charges against Praveen. First, that he had sent a file regarding the YSR Lifetime Achievement Awards to the Chief Secretary and wanted to place the proposal before the Council of Ministers, without prior approval. The senior bureaucrat was also accused of not bringing up the proposal of 'Gram Nyayalas', even after the approval by a competent authority.
Praven denied the allegations and issued a detailed response to both charges.
Subrahmanyam, was posted as the Director General of Human Resources Development Institute, considered a relatively unimportant position, and is due to retire in five months.