In choosing Girija Vaidyanathan, an officer of the 1981 batch of the Indian Administrative Service, as the new Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu , the State government has gone by the seniority list in the bureaucracy, reversing the unhealthy trend of supersession set in recent times.
Known to be an efficient civil servant, two years ago, she was among those who were superseded when K. Gnanadesikan, another IAS officer who is junior to her by a year, replaced Mohan Verghese Chunkath as Chief Secretary.
The 1981 IAS batch officer had undergone the same bitter experience six months ago when P. Rama Mohana Rao, much junior to her from the 1985 batch, was chosen for the post.
Following Wednesday’s unprecedented searches by the Income Tax Department at Mr. Rao’s houses and official chamber in the Secretariat, the government was left with little option but to replace him – both as the Chief Secretary and the Vigilance Commissioner.
It is learnt that other than Dr. Girija Vaidyanathan, the name of Finance Secretary K. Shanmugam, who belongs to the 1985 batch, also cropped up for consideration for the top job. Eventually, the government zeroed in on her as the political dispensation had decided to follow the principle of seniority.
Currently, there is only one officer (Shaktikanta Das of the 1980 batch) who is senior to Ms. Vaidyanathan. But, Mr. Das, now Economic Affairs Secretary, could not be considered for the post as he is preoccupied with the Centre’s scheme of demonetisation and is due for retirement in February 2017.
Mr. Rao has been kept under “compulsory wait,” a term used in bureaucrats’ parlance to describe the situation of an official who does not get any posting. An official in the Public Department denied some media reports that he was suspended.
Packed schedule
The 57-year-old Ms. Vaidyanathan, now holding the post of Commissioner of Land Administration (CLA), is the daughter of S. Venkitaramanan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and former Finance Secretary in the Central government, and sister-in-law of S.Ve. Shekher, veteran film and theatre personality.
Among her immediate tasks will be an interaction with a team from the Central government that may shortly visit Chennai and the neighbouring districts hit by cyclone Vardah. On December 28, she may have to accompany Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam to take part in the 27th meeting of the Southern Zonal Council in Thiruvananthapuram.
Ms. Vaidyanathan, who is the fourth woman to hold the post after Lakshmi Pranesh (December 2002-April 2005), S. Malathi (August 2010-May 2011) and Sheela Balakrishnan (January 2013-March 2014), has been described by her peers and juniors as an “upright, clean and brilliant” officer. “She is apolitical,” says a batchmate. With her long innings in government, Ms. Vaidyanathan knows very well the nuances of administration, says a senior official.
