ACS Abhay Kumar carrying out responsibilities as Acting CS

Jaipur: The senior most ACS Abhay Kumar (1992 batch) has been handling the responsibility of the post of Chief Secretary for a week since Chief Secretary Sudhansh Pant went to Singapore for the work of ‘Rising Rajasthan’. In his absence, DoP has issued an official order and appointed Abhay Kumar as the acting Chief Secretary.

According to administrative experts, in the state’s administrative history, this has happened only occasionally when in the absence of the CS, the responsibility was assigned to a senior ACS below him. A similar situation occurred in the year 2012, when the then Chief Secretary CK Mathew was going abroad, and ACS CS Rajan was assigned the work of CS by orders of DoP.

In the last 12 years, although the then Chief Secretaries have gone abroad or on leave many times, but the DoP has not assigned any responsibility to any other senior officer. It can also be said that the Chief Secretaries themselves did not consider it necessary. But the current Chief Secretary - Sudhansh Pant - who is in favour of rules and regulations, has got the orders issued from DoP for Abhay Kumar. In this case, Abhay Kumar can be called lucky. He has a long time of four years left before his retirement. He may become the Chief Secretary in the future. But right now he has got a golden opportunity to observe and understand the responsibilities and roles of this top post.

Firstly, the government appointed an Acting Chief Secretary in the absence of CS. Secondly, it was a coincidence that both IAS officers senior to Abhay - Subodh Agarwal (1988 batch) and Shubhra Singh (1989 batch) - were out of the secretariat. In such a situation, Abhay Kumar himself became the senior most.

It can be said that Abhay Kumar is fortunate that he is not only confined to handling files as an acting CS but also is getting a chance to play the role of an acting CS in the field as well. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has held many meetings during the last week and in all these, Abhay Kumar has got due importance and place as CS.

The significant thing is that before visiting abroad, the CM also chaired several meetings, providing Abhay Kumar with exposure to these discussions.