Shimla: Harinder Hira has been appointed the Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh to succeed Rajwant Sandhu who retired on Saturday.
This is the third successive occasion when a woman was appointed the state`s Chief Secretary. The state government had appointed Asha Swaroop as Chief Secretary in September 2008 who retired on July 31, 2010, and was succeeded by Sandhu. A Himachal cadre officer of 1976 batch of IAS, Hira would be Chief Secretary only for a month as she superannuates on April 30.
In a related development, the government appointed the seniormost Additional Chief secretary, Sudripto Roy of 1977 IAS batch as Officer on Special duty (OSD).
Roy is tipped to be next Chief Secretary on retirement of Hira. Rajwant Sandhu had also worked as an OSD before taking over as Chief Secretary on August 1, 2010. The government also promoted S.K.Dass, Principal Secretary, as Additional Secretary but his retirement is also due on June 30 next.
There were two senior officers S. Vijay Kumar and Sutanu Behuria of 1976 batch but they are now on central deputation.

PTI