NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vijay Kumar Dev is the new chief secretary of the National Capital. Known for his strict action against the corrupt, the 1987 batch IAS officer of AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram, Union Territories) cadre will succeed Anshu Prakash, who was transferred to the Department of Telecommunications in the Centre. His appointment was made superseding 1986-batch IAS officer Manoj Parida, who is currently serving as additional chief secretary (home) and principal secretary in the Public Works Department (PWD).
The CEO has held many portfolios in the Delhi administration in the past, Dev, an electrical engineer by profession, has also served in Chandigarh. Officials, who have worked with Dev, vouch his ‘out of the box’ thinking and for his initiatives that led to efficient functioning of the revenue department.
The senior bureaucrat has his task cut out as his predecessor Anshu Prakash did not share best of the ties with the AAP government after he was allegedly attacked in midnight hours by AAP MLAs at the official residence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in February.
It went all downhill from there with official work coming to a near standstill, as bureaucrats stopped attending meetings with the ministers, the deputy chief minister and the CM. The impasse forced Kejriwal to complain about the non-cooperation by officials and he even went on a sit-in protest for a few days at the Raj Niwas.