The Centre on Wednesday granted a three-month extension in service to Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney, who is supposed to retire on June 30.
Based on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's request to the Union Ministry of Personnel on May 12, the Centre approved extension of the 1984-batch IAS officer's service till September 30.
Jagan Mohan Reddy had sought extension for six months. The Department of Personnel and Training communicated the Centre's decision to the state government on Wednesday.
Nilam Sawhney became the first woman Chief Secretary of the truncated state of Andhra Pradesh in November last year, after the state government had shunted out LV Subrahmanyam. She took over from then Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, Neerabh Kumar Prasad, who was holding additional charge as the Chief Secretary.
Prior to that, she was holding the post of Social Justice and Empowerment Secretary in New Delhi.
Her predecessor, Subrahmanyam's exit, was controversial as it had come after a spat with another senior bureaucrat, who was serving as the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Subrahmanyam had served a show-cause notice to the bureaucrat for exhibiting ‘grave misconduct’ and ‘misbehaviour’ and resorting to ‘willful insubordination’, and was shunted out within days of serving the notice.
Subrahmanyam, was posted as the Director General of Human Resources Development Institute, considered a relatively unimportant position.
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