M M Kutty appointed Chief Secretary of Delhi

Senior IAS officer M. M. Kutty on 29 November 2016 was appointed the Chief Secretary of Delhi.

Kutty replaced K. K. Sharma, who was transferred to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development as Officer on Special Duty (OSD).

The Union Government had sent back Kutty to his parent Union Territories cadre before the completion of the tenure of his Central deputation.

Previously, Kutty, who is a 1985 batch IAS officer, was working as the Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The IAS officer had also served as the Principal Secretary to the former Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit. He has also been the Finance Secretary in the present AAP Government.

Roles of a Chief Secretary

• The Chief Secretary is the head of the state administrative machinery.

• The position of the Chief Secretary has been there in India since the British Empire. The Chief Secretary was the second most important official in the colonies of British Empire, after the Governor. He was known as the Colonial Secretary.

• The Chief Secretary serves as Chief of all government staff in the state and is the Secretary of the State Cabinet of Ministers.

• The post of Chief Secretary belongs to the cadre within the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

• The Chief Secretary of a state is the leader of the state’s administrative machinery, the Cabinet Secretary, the chief of the state’s public service commission as well as the principal Public Relation Officer of the state’s government.

• In view of the importance of the post, the post of the Chief Secretary has been kept out of the tenure system.