Three days after Charanjit Singh Channi took over as the new Chief Minister, the Punjab government on Thursday appointed a 1990 batch IAS officer, Anirudh Tiwari, as the chief
secretary, in place of the Vini Mahajan.
Mahajan, a 1987-batch IAS officer, was appointed the new chief secretary of Punjab in June 2020 and was set to remain in the post until her retirement in October 2024. Her husband, Dinkar Gupta, a 1987-batch IPS officer, is Punjab’s director-general of police. He was appointed to the post in February 2019.
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Ever since Channi took over as CM in place of Captain Amarinder Singh, there were speculations that both Mahajan and Gupta would be replaced as both the officers are deemed close to the former CM.
An order issued by the department of personnel this morning said Anirudh Tiwari has been posted as chief secretary to the government of Punjab in place of Vini Mahajan.
Till now, Tiwari was the additional chief secretary (ACS) and financial commissioner development, ACS food processing, ACS horticulture and ACS governance reforms and public grievances. He will continue to be the ACS for these departments.
Mahajan was the first woman to become chief secretary of Punjab. She is empanelled to hold the position as secretary in the Union government. Mahajan had served in the office of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2005-2012 and handled matters relating to finance, industry and commerce, telecom, IT, etc.
She was part of the core team of the Central government that put together India’s domestic response during and following the global financial meltdown.
In 1995, Mahajan became the first woman officer to be posted as deputy commissioner in Punjab’s Ropar.