A three-member panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appointed Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and former Kerala cadre IAS officer Gyanesh Kumar as new Election Commissioners.

The appointments were made days after election commissioners, Arun Goel’s sudden resignation and Anup Pandey’s retirement in February.

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Who is the Sukhbir Singh Sandhu?

Sandhu is a former IAS officer of the 1998 batch from the Uttarakhand cadre. He has also served as the chief secretary of Uttarakhand in the Pushkar Singh Dhami Government.

He held several high-profile positions at the Centre and in the state governments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.

During the Badal regime in Punjab, he worked as special secretary to the Punjab CM between 2007 and 2012.

Before that, Sandhu was the chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). During his tenure as NHAI chairman, he worked closely with Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. The minister had termed Sandhu’s tenure “among the best achieved by the NHAI.”

The former Indian Administrative Service officer has served in the Department of Higher Education as additional secretary.

Sandhu has an MBBS degree from Government Medical College, Amritsar, and a master’s degree in History from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Sandhu has published papers on ‘Urban Reforms’ and ‘Municipal Management and Capacity Building’.

Sandhu was invited to deliver a lecture on ‘de-stressing Indian cities’ by the prestigious Harvard Business School, Boston, USA. Besides, he has been a regular speaker at the National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

He is a highly experienced professional in the field of roads and infrastructure development, Public Private Partnership projects, urban development, revenue administration, rural development, and information technology.

He was conferred the President’s Medal in recognition of his services as Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, Punjab.