Ajeya Kallam Appointed New Chief Secretary Of AP

Amaravati: Ajeya Kallam, IAS officer of 1983 batch, will be the new Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh.

The state government issued an order this evening appointing Kallam as the head of the bureaucracy to replace Satya Prakash Tucker. Kallam will take charge tomorrow from Tucker, who will retire at the end of his extended six-month tenure. Known to be an "upright" officer, Kallam is currently Special Chief Secretary, Finance and Revenue, and is widely respected. He will, however, retire on March 31 on attaining the age of superannuation.

Ajeya Kallam’s tenure as Chief Secretary will be for one month as the Centre reportedly turned down the State’s request for a six-month extension for him.

On April 1, Dinesh Kumar, another IAS officer of the 1983 batch, will succeed Kallam, the government order said. The Centre reportedly turned down the state government's request for a six-month extension of Kallam's tenure, leaving it with no option but to appoint Dinesh as the subsequent CS, sources said.

The Centre reportedly cited a similar case in neighbouring Telangana as a precedent, wherein K Pradeep Chandra had got only one month to serve as CS in December last when the request for extension of his tenure was rejected.