Mon, Nov 18, 2024
Senior IAS officer Lalbiaktluanga Khiangte has been appointed as the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, according to a government notification. A 1988-batch officer, Khiangte was serving as the Additional Chief Secretary of the Forest, Environment and Climate Change in the state government.
Khiangte replaces Sukhdev Singh, who has been shunted to the Shri Krishna Institute of Public Administration as its Director General just four months before his retirement. Singh was appointed as the chief secretary on April 1, 2020 and is set to retire on March 31, 2024.
The move to replace Singh with Khiangte, who is from Mizoram, was sudden and came ahead of the assembly polls due next year.
“Khiangte is a tribal Christian from the Northeast and enjoys a clean image. Having a tribal chief secretary in a tribal-dominated state is a smart move by the CM,” said a top official source well versed with matters related to bureaucracy in Jharkhand and Bihar.
Khiangte is due to retire on October 31 next year.