DK Jain is new chief secretary, supersedes seniors for top job

The Maharashtra government has appointed DK Jain as the chief secretary, bypassing the seniority of a few IAS officers. Jain, who took charge from Sumit Mallick on Monday, will serve nine months in the top post before he retires on January 31, 2019.

Officials said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis chose the 1983-batch IAS officer for his contribution in the Panchayati Raj department at the Centre, his knowledge of technology as well as work in the Agriculture department. He had been invited by former US president Barack Obama to talk about NREGA, the rural job guarantee scheme.

Sources said additional chief secretaries Medha Gadgil and Sudheerkumar Shrivastava were in the race. They had apparently expressed their displeasure when talks of Jain's possible elevation began doing the rounds.

Doubling income from agriculture and improvement in services to the public will be his priority, said Jain. Sources said his predecessor Mallick would be the new chief information commissioner.