In a major overhaul of the top bureaucracy in Tamil Nadu, the government shunted out Chief Secretary Mohan Varghese Chunkath to an insignificant post on Tuesday and replaced him with K. Gnanadesikan, CMD of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and power utility Tangedco.
As the news of transfer and posting of Mr. Chunkath as Director, Anna Institute of Management and Director General of Training trickled in, bureaucrats were taken by surprise.
Incidentally, Mr. Gnanadesikan’s elevation comes barely a week after his promotion as Additional Chief Secretary. An officer of the 1982 IAS batch, he will be the fourth Chief Secretary in 43 months the AIADMK has been in power. Neither ministers nor senior bureaucrats seem to know the reason behind the change in the top bureaucracy. They could only speculate. Over the past week, the Opposition parties have been making allegations of scams in purchase of power from private companies and in purchase of eggs for the noon meal scheme. Mr. Chunkath, who assumed charge on April 1, 2014, could have been made a ‘scapegoat’ ahead of the winter session of the Assembly that begins on Thursday, officials say. In fact, he did not even complete a year in the post.
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When few of his colleagues met him after the news broke, Mr. Chunkath apparently took it in his stride and even quipped that he never expected to become the Chief Secretary in the first place, say insiders. Mr. Gnanadesikan, considered politically astute, took charge on Tuesday evening.