Just before the announcement of forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued orders to remove the Chief Secretaries of 6 states in a bid to ensure the peaceful, free and fair conduct of the elections. In this series, after Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal was sent on leave on March 15, was replaced by Revenue Secretary, Financial Commissioner Revenue-Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) TVSN, who also holds the additional charge of Home Secretary, as the Chief. Gave the responsibility of secretary. All three positions are the most senior in the bureaucracy. After assigning the responsibility of the Chief Secretary to the FCR, who is already having the additional charge of Home Secretary, the experts are seeking the regular appointments of these top brass officials in the state ahead of the polls. In continuation to aforementioned, it is worth noting that since August 2019, there has been no regular appointment on the post of Home Secretary in Haryana and such an important post is being run by giving additional charge to other officers, due to which questions are now being raised.
Not only the post of the Home Secretary , now the appointment on the post of Chief Secretary has been made additionally which also led to ruckus and new developments to some extent in the state bureaucracy leaving the IAS officials with new speculations.. After 20 years, during the second innings of BJP in Haryana, the Home Department in Haryana got Anil Vij as an independent cabinet minister. Experts are of the opinion that this probably did not happen during the rule of any state government. As far as the Home Department of Haryana is concerned at the administrative level, apart from Home (Police), it also includes Jail Department, Criminal Investigation (Intelligence) Department and Justice Administration wings. After the BJP succeeded in forming a government in the state, the Home Department was with Anil Vij but after the formation of the new government recently, it is vacant at present. During the second term of BJP, both the Justice Administration Department and the Intelligence Department are with the Chief Minister and the concerned officers report to the Chief Minister, Home Minister and Jail Minister. The post of Chief Secretary is the senior post administrative post in the bureaucracy in any state followed by Revenue Secretary, Financial Commissioner Revenue – also called Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR). It is the second most senior post and hence generally the second most senior IAS officer in the state cadre is posted on it. At present, senior IAS TVson Prasad, who holds the additional charge of Chief Secretary and Home Secretary, is the current FCR.
After the BJP led-government came into existence in 2014 in Haryana for the very first time, as many as 10 Haryana Home Secretaries were appointed as regular and additional charges in the state during a period of around 10 years. . During a time period of around 6 years from October 2014, till September 2020 the state has seen seven Home Secretaries. First of all, in the first major administrative reshuffle in November 2014, 1985 batch K.P.K. Mahapatra was appointed the first home secretary of the new government.. A year later, in November 2015, PK Das of 1986 batch was posted in his place. However, just six months later, in May 2016, Ram Niwas of 1985 batch was made the Home Secretary, who remained on this post for one and a quarter years. After which, in September, 2017, SS Prasad of 1984 batch was appointed Home Secretary, who remained on this post for almost two years i.e. till July, 2019 i.e. till his retirement. After the retirement of Prasad in August 2019, the charge of State Home Secretary has been additionally given to senior IAS officers. Then in the month of August, the then senior woman IAS of 1984 batch. Officer Navraj Sandhu also had the additional charge of the Revenue and Disaster Management and Consolidation Department as well as the Home Department for four months i.e. from August, 2019 to November, 2019. After the retirement of Sandhu on November 30, 2019, the charge of Administrative Secretary of the Home Department was given as additional charge to the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Haryana, Rajesh Khullar, who is a 1988 batch IAS. One month after this, i.e. at the end of December 2019, Vijay Vardhan, who at that time was only the Additional Chief Secretary of the Tourism Department. He was given the charge of the Home Department as an additional charge. After this, Vijay Vardhan, like Navraj Sandhu, handled the huge departments of Revenue, Disaster Management and Consolidation and Home. After this, the post of Home Secretary was given to Rajiv Arora as additional charge and after this the responsibility of this post was given to Sudhir Rajpal. After this, the responsibility of this post was given to Sudhir Rajpal but on the same day, after a few hours, he was removed and TVSN Prasad was made the Home Minister. Experts say that the Home Department of the State Government, which is not only a heavy but also a sensitive department, hence such a department should be headed by a senior IAS. Should not be provided as additional workload but as main charge i.e. full time.
DS Dhesi was appointed as the the 32nd Chief Secretary of Haryana on 31 December 2014 and retired on 30 June 2019 after serving as Chief Secretary for about 4 and a half years. After this, Keshni Anand Arora took charge as the 33rd Chief Secretary on 31 June 2019 and he served as Chief Secretary till 30 September 2020.After his retirement, Vijay Vardhan took over as Chief Secretary and then after his retirement on 30 November 2022, Sanjeev Kaushal took over the responsibility of Chief Secretary. Now in this series, after Sanjeev Kaushal was sent on leave on March 15, 2024, FCR TVSN Prasad has been given the responsibility of the new Chief Secretary as additional charge.
