THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major development, senior IAS officer Ratan U Kelkar has been appointed as the chief minister’s secretary. Notably, he’s being appointed to the crucial post while serving as the chief electoral officer, Kerala.
The 2003 batch Kerala cadre official, a native of Maharashtra, has earlier held different key positions in the state government. The government order appointing him as secretary to CM V D Satheean will be issued on Saturday.
Sreekumar T, a retired additional secretary, has been appointed special private secretary of the CM. The team also includes Siji G S as press secretary and Roy Mathews as media secretary. Thilakan K P K and Mohanachandran M S have been named additional private secretaries, while Padmakumar M, Abimon P A, Manojkumar P N, Jafarkhan S, Jayachandran A and Prakash O T will serve as assistant secretaries.