Chandigarh, June 20
The Centre has given Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi an extension of a year. The 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, who was retiring on June 30, was elevated to the post of the Chief Secretary by not following the seniority principle.
Official sources said the state government had written to the Central government for an extension, which has been approved by it.
Rastogi’s contemporaries -- Sudhir Rajpal, Sumita Misra, Anand Mohan Sharan and Raja Shekhar Vundru -- and the 1991 batch officers -- Vineet Garg, Anil Malik, G. Anupama, A.K. Singh and Abhilaksh Likhi -- were the probable candidates for the post.
According to the gradation list of state IAS officers, Sudhir Rajpal of the 1990 batch is the senior-most as per the inter-se seniority, followed by Sumita Misra, Anurag Rastogi, Anand Mohan Sharan and Raja Sekhar Vundru.
Rastogi was elevated to the top post in February after 1989-batch IAS officer Vivek Joshi was selected as Election Commissioner by the Central government.