Ravi Kumar is the new chief secretary of Karnataka, Bhaskar retires without extension

BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday issued the orders to appoint additional chief secretary

P Ravi Kumar

as the new chief secretary to replace outgoing senior most bureaucrat

T M Vijay Bhaskar

.


Kumar, a 1984 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer is originally from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh but has been long considered as a Kannadiga for having studied for most parts in the state.

Born in 1962, Kumar is an MSc in mathematics and has a PG diploma in econometrics.

With the present age limit giving babus a tenure till the age of 60 years, Kumar is going to remain in post as the top bureaucrat in the state for one and half years, till May 2022.

Not one to buck precedence, Yediyurappa on Wednesday appointed Kumar based on seniority and having worked with him personally in the first few months of taking charge as CM in late 2019.

Kumar was the additional chief secretary to Yediyurappa for a brief tenure of eight months before being appointed as ACS to government for ensuring his eligibility for becoming the chief secretary.

With a long list of portfolios being handled, Kumar shot to prominence during the previous Congress regime when he was the Energy department principal secretary with present KPCC president D K Shivakumar as the minister.

Kumar is said to be instrumental in bringing a majority of Karnataka’s energy requirements under the renewable sources and boosting Karnataka’s energy position from being a coal deficit to a energy surplus state.

While Kumar was the third senior most Karnataka batch officer behind Bhaskar and D V Prasad, the latter opted for central deputation and retired in November this year.

At the other end, Bhaskar is one of the few Chief Secretaries who has not received an extension to his tenure unlike his predecessors.

Since former CS S V Ranganath, almost all chief secretaries have received an extension of three to six months.

But sources point out that since Rangnath and till Bhaskar, most chief secretaries had a short tenure due to the age limit and thus were given an extension on request from either the IAS officers or those lobbying on behalf of them. Bhaskar was the CS for a period of two and half years and is one of the longest serving IAS officers in that post.

Having taken charge in July 2018, soon after the general elections were announced, Bhaskar remained the CS under serious political uncertainty and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new CS is scheduled to take charge at 5 pm on Thursday and hold his first meet of senior officials thereon.

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