New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday evening approved the appointment of IAS officer KK Sharma as the Delhi Chief Secretary, a choice that is also acceptable to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
The development comes a day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal rejected a panel of three officers recommended by the Home Ministry.
According to reports, the Ministry had yesterday sent a panel of three senior IAS officers to the Delhi government to pick up any of them.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had, however, suggested Sharma's name after his first choice, Ramesh Negi, was rejected by the Home Ministry.
The two key reasons which came in the way of appointing Negi as Chief Secretary are - nearly a dozen officers senior to Negi are still serving in different capacities and he is not in the pay scale of Rs 80,000.
Whereas, the Home Ministry had asked the city government to send name of any officer who is in the pay scale of Rs 80,000.
The Home Ministry is the nodal authority of making all top bureaucratic appointments in the Delhi government as the city is a Union Territory.
Sharma, a 1983-batch IAS officer, joined as the Goa Chief Secretary on January 1, 2015 and had barely completed two months in his present posting.
He was last posted in Delhi as the Principal Secretary (PWD) from 2009 to 2011 and he will supersede five officers of his cadre if he is appointed as the Delhi Chief Secretary.
(With Agency inputs)
