The Central Government has seen fit to appoint S. Jayavardhan, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service borne upon the Chhattisgarh cadre and belonging to the 2014 batch, to the office of Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs at Delhi. The appointment is made under the Central Staffing Scheme and carries a tenure of four years from the date upon which he shall assume charge, or until further orders, whichever event shall first occur.
The Officer and His Antecedents
Jayavardhan is a native of Andhra Pradesh, born upon the fourth day of December, 1978 . His academic formation lies in the discipline of Computer Science: he took his bachelor’s degree from Andhra University and thereafter proceeded to the University of Hyderabad, where he obtained a Master of Technology .
Before his entry into the administrative service, he had been selected for the Indian Railway Traffic Service and underwent training therein for some nine months; yet he essayed the Civil Services Examination once more and found success, being allotted to the IAS upon the first day of September, 2014 .
His career in the Chhattisgarh cadre has been marked by a succession of field and staff appointments. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of the District Panchayat in Balodabazar-Bhatapara, and in like capacity in Korba, where he also held the office of Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation. He has been Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation at Raigarh, and Collector of the district of Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chouki . More recently, he was serving as Director in the Department of Finance and Accounts within the state establishment .
The Terms of the Appointment
The order of appointment, issued by the competent authority, has been communicated to the Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh, with a direction that the officer be relieved of his present duties without delay so that he may proceed to take up his new charge . It is stipulated that he must assume office within three weeks of the date of the order; and should he fail to do so within the time appointed, proceedings for debarment under the Central Staffing Scheme may be set in motion . The Ministry of Home Affairs has been requested to furnish a copy of the appointment notification once it is issued .
The Central Staffing Scheme, under whose aegis this appointment is made, is an arrangement of long standing whereby officers of the All India Services and of the participating Central Services are selected for tenure appointments at the levels of Deputy Secretary, Director, Joint Secretary, and above in the ministries and departments of the Government of India .
Such deputation is intended to bring to the Centre the experience of officers seasoned in the administration of the States, while affording them a wider view of national governance. For an officer of the 2014 batch, the present appointment marks a significant step in the progression of his career, placing him at the heart of the Union Government’s internal security and domestic administration.
The particular division or desk within the Ministry of Home Affairs to which Jayavardhan shall be assigned has not been specified in the order; his precise responsibilities shall be determined by the Ministry in due course . What is certain is that he enters a ministry whose charge encompasses the maintenance of internal security, the administration of Union Territories, disaster management, and the coordination of the Union’s relations with the States—a portfolio of no small weight in the governance of the Republic.
The appointment is one among several recent placements under the Central Staffing Scheme, whereby officers from the States are drawn into the machinery of the Union. For Jayavardhan, it represents the translation of a career spent largely in the districts and departments of Chhattisgarh to the broader theatre of national administration. The four-year tenure, subject to the customary condition of “until further orders,” affords a term of sufficient length for the officer to acquaint himself with the workings of the Ministry and to contribute to its deliberations with the perspective of one who has served in the field.
The order has been welcomed in administrative circles as a recognition of the officer’s record in the state cadre. He is expected to assume his new duties in Delhi within the prescribed period, there to take up the responsibilities of Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
