Sujata Saunik
New Delhi: On Sunday, June 30th, Sujata Saunik, an IAS officer from the 1987 batch, succeeded retiring Chief Secretary Nitin Kareer to become Maharashtra’s first female chief secretary. By the way, Manoj Saunik, the spouse of Saunik, had handed over control of this position to Kareer.
Saunik was previously employed by the Maharashtra government as an additional chief secretary in the departments of home and general administration. Since the state of Maharashtra was established in 1960, she will be the 45th Chief Secretary.
In March 2024, following the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 with the publication of the results, the departing Chief Secretary was granted a three-month extension by the central government. Senior bureaucrats Rajesh Kumar and IS Chahal were also vying to become Chief Secretaries, in addition to Saunik.
But after she was elevated to the position of secretary earlier this week, placing her among the nation’s most senior bureaucrats, the administration was forced to name her the state’s chief secretary.
The two most important positions in Maharashtra, Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP), are currently held by women. In January 2024, Rashmi Shukla, a senior IPS officer, assumed leadership as the Maharashtra DGP. She was the first woman to hold the position as well.
Saunik has served as the state’s Principal Secretary of Public Health and Financial Reform and Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Department (SDEED) for the past ten years.
She participated in research conducted by Oxford Policy Management that examined expenditures and results for two important government departments: women and children and school education. She has experience working for the federal government in the departments of women and children, disaster management, and two UN humanitarian missions in Kosovo and Cambodia.
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