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IAS officer Anu Garg appointed Odisha chief secretary, first woman to hold post
Anu Garg, 56, was serving as development commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary and secretary of the planning and convergence department
BHUBANESWAR: Anu Garg, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was on Wednesday appointed Odisha’s chief secretary, the first woman to hold the state’s top bureaucratic post.
Garg’s appointment order was issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance (GA&PG) Department on Wednesday, days ahead of the retirement of incumbent chief secretary Manoj Ahuja on December 31.
Garg, 56, was serving as development commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary and secretary of the planning and convergence department. She also held an additional charge of the water resources department.
Garg’s elevation marks a watershed moment in the administrative history of Odisha, a state where the top bureaucratic position had, until now, remained the preserve of men. To be sure, the state had Nandini Satpathy as a woman chief minister way back in 1972.
Garg had previously broken a glass ceiling when she became the first woman IAS officer to be appointed as a development commissioner in the state — a post regarded as second only to the chief secretary in the administrative hierarchy.
The incumbent, Ahuja, served as chief secretary for over a year. Garg, who is due to retire only in March 2029, will take over the top post at a time when the state government is preparing to implement key development programmes and budgetary initiatives in the new year.
A native of Uttar Pradesh, Garg holds a master’s degree in Sociology and has spent more than three decades in the civil service, during which she has handled a range of key assignments in Odisha, particularly in the planning, development, and water resources sectors.
