CS Girija Vaidyanathan appoints third secretary to Tamil Nadu CM office

Chennai: Chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan appointed Dr P. Senthil Kumar as secretary (III) to Chief Minister. In a related development, Mythili Rajendran now becomes the public secretary after the transfer of senior IAS officers. The coveted post was held by Shivdas Meena, who is leaving the Tamil Nadu cadre on deputation to Centre.

A government order copy issued by the chief secretary said the subjects hitherto dealt by Shivdas Meena in the CM’s office are allocated to Senthil Kumar, who is from Namakkal district and belongs to the 1995 IAS batch and who had previously served as a special secretary to health and family welfare department.

The order also posted M.A. Siddique, commissioner of archives and historical research, as the secretary to government (expenditure) Finance in place of Senthil Kumar. The order also designated CM secretary (III) Vijayakumar as principal secretary (II) to CM.

Meanwhile there were also rumours at the power corridors of secretariat that a few top officials in the education and health departments were to be shifted.

With the latest transfers, the chief minister’s office will now have three IAS officers and two officers in the ranks of deputy secretaries. It may be noted that after the demise of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in December 2016, the number of posts had been reduced in the CM’s office.

The chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan also succeeded in scrapping the extensions given to retired IAS officers at the state secretariat.