Tamil Nadu Gets New Chief Secretary, DGP; Chennai Has New Police Chief

Meena will succeed V. Irai Anbu, while Jiwal, a 1990-batch IPS officer, would replace C. Sylendra Babu. Both Anbu and Babu are set to superannuate on June 30. The government also announced Sandeep Rai Rathore, a 1992-batch IPS officer as the new Commissioner of Police, Chennai, as Jiwal moves out of that office.

Earlier, Meena, a Tamil Nadu-cadre officer, was serving as the Additional Chief Secretary of the state’s Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) Department.

Considered to be close to the ruling DMK dispensation, Meena was repatriated in May 2021 to his home cadre from New Delhi, where he was serving as the Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board, at the request of the state government when it came to power.

The outgoing Chief Secretary Anbu, a 1988-batch officer, is likely to focus on writing and social activities, going by the buzz in Chennai.

Interestingly, his brother V. Thiruppugazh, a 1991-batch IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, who retired in 2021, was appointed by the DMK government in the same year to lead an advisory panel on flood mitigation and management in Chennai. He too spends time in scholarly pursuits.

While in Gujarat, Thiruppugazh had served as the Secretary to the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Considered to be a close aide of Modi, he moved to New Delhi on central deputation in 2015 and his last assignment prior to retirement was in the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), of which Prime Minister Modi is the ex-officio chairman.