RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, who was set to retire on Monday with a formal farewell planned by the cabinet, received a last-minute three-month extension following a phone call from Delhi.
The extension came after Governor Ramen Deka had already conveyed his wishes and the state cabinet led by Vishnu Deo Sai had prepared to bid him farewell at the secretariat.
The state government in the cabinet meeting, following the approval from the Centre, took the decision to extend the tenure of the CS.
This is for the first time any chief secretary rank officer has been given an extension in Chhattisgarh that came into existence in November 2000. Jain got elevated as the CS in November 2020 and is the state's longest-serving officer in that role.
The state cabinet was specially called on Monday to bid adieu to the top bureaucrat upon his superannuation.
Earlier in the day, Jain visited Rajbhawan where the Governor honoured Jain with a shawl and a shrifal (coconut) expressing admiration for his ‘illustrious services’. The CS later went to the secretariat to attend the cabinet meeting.
While the meeting was about to conclude, a call from the central government halted the farewell programme where the state ministers and the chief minister were to give speeches to acknowledge the services and contributions of Jain while in office as the CS.
Neither the state government nor Jain had any inkling about the Centre’s decision that came just a couple of hours before the retirement.
Officials informed that a customary farewell programme was also to be organised by the officials of the General Administration Department and the staff union in the secretariat hall on Monday evening.
“The Chhattisgarh government didn’t get any response from the Centre till yesterday about its earlier proposal sent to Delhi seeking an approval to grant a 3-month extension to Jain. As the state government kept looking for any indication from the central government, there also arose a possibility of announcing a new CS. However nothing was clear before the Sai cabinet met on Monday”, an official in the know-how of the development said.