Anjani elevation mars chances of seniors, juniors

PATNA: Chief secretary-designate and 1981-batch IAS official Anjani K Singh’s would be the longest tenure in recent years — till February 2018. His elevation has blocked the prospects of most of the 1982-batch IAS officers for the top job as most of them will retire before 2018.
Singh’s elevation has already jeopardized the prospects of 1980-batch officers for the top job.The lone chief secretary-rank rank officer of 1980 batch, Narendra K Sinha, who has become the IT adviser to the government, will retire in 2018.
Singh, a postgraduate in Geography from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, has been serving as the principal secretary to the CM since August 27, 2012.
The 56-year-old officer has in the past held several key positions in departments like education, art, culture and youth and agriculture.
Singh’s batch mates, including S K Negi, C Lalsota and Vijoy Prakash, will retire in 2016. Even his juniors like Vyasji and Rajesh Gupta (both 1982) will superannuate in 2016 while Sudhir K Rakesh and Rameshwar Singh (both 1983) will retire before 2018. Only two officers posted in Bihar — Navin K Verma and Shishir Sinha (both 1982) — will retire after 2018.
“The government chose to appoint him as the chief secretary in view of the current political instability as Singh is considered a ‘crisis manager’.
Second, soft-spoken Singh will be the fit person to work as a bridge between former CM Nitish Kumar and current CM Jitan Ram Manjhi,” said a political observer.