State govt hands over Pant’s services to Centre

Jaipur: Senior IAS Sudhansh Pant’s wait is finally over as after a fortnight, he would finally leave for Delhi as on December 1, he has to take charge of new responsibility in Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. The Rajasthan government on Tuesday, issued orders and handed Pant’s services to the GoI and now on November 30, he will be relieved from his post of DG, HCM-RIPA. For two months, Pant will work as OSD in the Ministry and will take over as full time Secretary on February 1, 2023 when current Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan retires. Pant still has five years to retirement and it is believed that chances of his return to Rajasthan are slim. As of now, 3 Rajasthan cadre IAS - V Srinivas, Rohit Kumar Singh and Sanjay Malhotra - are posted as Secretaries whereas, Neel kamal Darbari is posted as Chairperson, which is a post akin to Secretary. Meanwhile, with Pant’s departure, the post of DG, HCM-RIPA will lay vacant & a senior officer will have to be appointed here while there is a dearth of senior officers in the State bureaucracy. After Pant, the State will be left with just 6 ACS - Veenu Gupta, Subodh Agarwal, PK Goyal, Rajeshwar Singh and Abhay Kumar.