Former Haryana Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati sworn in as State Information Commissioner

Former Haryana chief secretary Urvashi Gulati was sworn in as Haryana state information commissioner (SIC) on 1 April 2012. She took oath as the SIC despite the protest of the RTI activists against the appointment of a retired bureaucrat on such important post.

Following the appointment of Urvashi Gulati as the SIC, Harayana Soochna Adhikar Manch, a body of 3500 RTI activists announced to send a memorandum to the governor, Jagannath Pahadia urging him to stop the practice of appointing retired bureaucrats as SIC.

The 1975 batch IAS, Gulati who hails from Ambala city of Haryana retired from the post of chief secretary on 31 March 2012.

About Urvashi Gulati

After completing her M.A., she worked as a lecturer in Panjab University. She appeared in the IAS examination and joined 1975 batch and was allotted to Haryana Cadre. Gulati started her career as Sub Divisional Officer at Palwal. She also served as the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon. She worked for rural development and was deeply involved in poverty.

Gulati has the distinction of serving as Secretary to Governor Haryana for seven years. As Secretary to Governor had assisted the Governor-Chancellor in constitutional matters and had attended to all university affairs as Chancellor of four universities in the State. As member Secretary of Kurukshetra Development Board, she was deeply involved with the development of Kurukshetra as heritage of India.

She was Chief Electoral Officer at the time of General Elections to Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha Elections, 2005. Also, she was nominated by the Election Commission of India as International Observer to Sri Lanka at the General Parliamentary Elections 2001. She helped in the rationalization of polling stations resulting into better management and saving of 18% in deployment of manpower and other expenses.

Gulati who attended Workshop as Rural Development and Poverty alleviation at Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, U.K. in 1993 had successfully negotiated loan for highways with World Bank at Washington.
As Principal Secretary, Health & Medical Education she attended Asia-Pacific workshop on Continuum of Care for Maternal and New Born Health at Bangkok (Thailand).

She also worked as Financial Commissioner Revenue and Disaster Management, Development & Panchayats and Rural Development Departments.

Her husband, Naresh Gulati is also Haryana's chief information commissioner. The state government had earlier appointed Naresh Gulati in his present capacity after his retirement as financial commissioner and principal secretary.