Voluntary retirement of five IAS officers in the last year and other trust issues have created an unusual situation in UP when one senior officer has been handling charge of Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) and Infrastructure and Industrial Production Commissioner (IIDC). Both of these positions are considered among the top three positions after the Chief Secretary. Last month, the officer working as APC since March 2022 was given additional charge as IIDC, sending ripples through the bureaucracy. While APC controls 18 departments and several corporations, the IIDC controls Industrial and Infrastructure Development, a massive department in itself. Interestingly, the present chief secretary is also working on an extended tenure of one year.