CHENNAI: With Tamil Nadu chief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan due to retire on June 30, speculation is rife as to who will replace her. While there are 16 senior IAS officers eligible for the post, the officers believed to be in the running are Finance Secretary K Shanmugam, who has held the appointment for a record nine years, Commercial Taxes Secretary TV Somanathan, Home Secretary Niranjan Mardi and Rural Development Secretary Hansraj Verma. Official sources said that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is likely to announce Vaidyanathan’s replacement in the last week of the month. Whether she will be appointed an advisor to the government like some of her predecessors remains to be seen.
The longest-serving woman chief secretary after Lakshmi Pranesh, the first woman chief secretary of the State (December 2002 to April 2005), Vaidyanathan took charge just after the Income Tax Department raided the residence and official premises of her predecessor, P Rama Mohan Rao, in December 2016. Known as a straightforward officer, she has still faced some controversies during her tenure of two and a half years, including regarding the gutkha scam. When her brother-in-law and actor SVe Shekher was criticised for his remarks against women journalists and went missing for some time, a petition was filed before the Madras High Court alleging that she was shielding him. However, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn.
During the 36 years of her career, she has headed many key departments, including health, civil supplies, personnel management a, education, industries, finance, environment and forests, planning and programme implementation.