Who will succeed as State’s Chief Secretary was the question hovering in the bureaucratic circles since last few months as the incumbent CS Veena Rana’s tenure is nearing completion. Anurag Jain, a 1989-batch IAS officer, is set to become the new Chief Secretary. He will replace the current Chief Secretary, Veera Rana, whose service extension ended on September 30. Except ‘The Hitavada’, most of the media publications stated “Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Rajesh Rajora is all set to take over as CS. The Government may issue an order appointing Rajora as CS either on Sunday or on Monday.”

 

However, announcement of Jain’s name has put a full stop to all the whispers in administrative circles. Tenure of new CS will be till August 2025. Jain has a wide spectrum of service experience at the Center as well as in State. He held the key role in the capacity of Joint Secretary at Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and later held the post in the Ministry of Road, Transport, and Highways, for three terms in the Modi Government. In State, he served during Kamal Nath as well as Shivraj Singh Chouhan governments. When the State was facing financial crunch he was assigned as Finance Department Principal Secretary during Congress regime. While in Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government, he played the role of Secretary to the CM. Jain returned to Central on deputation.

 

The then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan appointed Veena Rana as CS. She got two extensions and worked in Mohan Yadav led Government also, On Monday, she was retiring. Before the final decision of Jain’s posting, names of some of the IAS officers were doing rounds including, S N Mishra and Rajesh Rajora. It was cited that Rajora has good understanding with CM Mohan Yadav and he has worked in Malwa region from where CM hails for a long time, Rajora’s name was seen as a prominent candidate in CS’ race. He was being entrusted with a role at Secretariat in CM’s office. The 1990-batch IAS officer Rajora is one of those who are considered close to Yadav. After taking over as CM, Yadav posted him to his secretariat. Apart from Rajora, names of ACS Mohd Suleman, S N Mishra, and Anurag Jain who is on deputation to Centre were doing rounds for the top job in the State bureaucracy. In May 2020, Jain once again returned to the Centre on deputation. From 2013 to February 2014, he served as the Acting Chairman and Managing Director of EXIM Bank.