Minnie Mathew, Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) officer of the 1976 batch on Saturday took over as the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, the second woman to hold the top bureaucratic post.
She stepped into the shoes of Pankaj Dwivedi who retired as Chief Secretary on attaining the age of superannuation. Her appointment ended two-week long suspense over the successor of Mr. Dwivedi and Ms. Mathews (59), the senior most IAS officer of AP cadre holding the post of Chief Commissioner Land Administration (CCLA), was selected.
Ms. Mathew is the second woman IAS officer to occupy the coveted post, the first being Ms. Sathi Nair (also from Kerala) who served as Chief Secretary for a brief spell.
Ms. Mathew too will be in the post for a limited period of eight months before her retirement in February 2013. She has two sons and her husband, Mathew C. Kunnumkal, a retired IAS officer, is a member of the Kerala Administrative Tribunal. Incidentally, Pathanamthitta district in Kerala was formed on the basis of her report in November 1982 and Mr. Mathews was the first Collector and special officer of the district.
She assumed charge after thanking Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and seeing off Mr. Dwivedi following felicitations to both of them by employees. She promised to do her bit to improve the administration so that a file in the Secretariat would move on its own and transform the lives of people. “Governance should deal with small things too besides grandiose matters. I will try to consolidate various welfare and developmental schemes”.
Along with Mr. Dwivedi, G. Sudhir and S. Bhale Rao, both special chief secretaries, also retired on Saturday.
