Photo courtesy of The Indian Express
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala state cabinet has decided to appoint Sarada Muraleedharan as the next chief secretary in the vacancy following her husband Dr V Venu’s retirement on August 31.
This is the first time in the state bureaucracy a chief secretary’s wife is taking over the post from her husband directly, according to The Indian Express.
On two occasions previously, since the formation of the state in 1956, IAS couples became chief secretaries but not directly succeeding.
The decision for the rare change of guard was taken at the Cabinet on Wednesday, the outlet reported .
Venu and Sarada belong to the 1990 batch of IAS, with Sarada currently being additional chief secretary of the Local Self-Government Department.
During her tenure as the head of Kudumbashree Mission between 2006 and 2012 for six years there had been several initiatives for the empowerment of women in the state.
Later, Sarada became the chief operating officer at the National Rural Livelihood Mission under the Rural Development Ministry till 2013.
Serving as the joint secretary at the Panchayat Raj Ministry for next two years, she was at helm of conceptualizing the gram panchayat development plans.