Senior IAS officer Subhash Chandra Khuntia has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka. He will take charge from October 1.
The State government on Wednesday issued an order appointing Mr. Khuntia as the Chief Secretary. He will succeed Arvind Jadhav, who is retiring on Friday.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah chose Mr. Khuntia, known as an upright IAS officer, to head the State bureaucracy. He has worked in the State earlier. Though Upendra Tripathy is the senior most IAS officer in the State, the fact that he is set to retire next month forced the Chief Minister to overlook him for the post.
The names of Additional Chief Secretaries Ratna Prabha and S.K. Pattanayak were also doing the rounds. While Ms. Ratna Prabha and Mr. Khuntia are from the 1981 IAS batch, Mr. Pattanayak is a year junior.
Mr. Siddaramaiah appointed Mr. Khuntia for the post looking at his past records, sources in the State Secretariat said.
