6 Things To Know About TN’s New Chief Secy Girija Vaidyanathan

Major changes are happening in Tamil Nadu. An IT raid at TN’s Ex-Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao’s and his relatives’ houses changed the course of action for him. This called for a quick appointment of Girija Vaidyanathan, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary/ Commissioner of Land Administration as the new Chief Secretary.

Her appointment letter stated that she will be in charge of all the posts held by Rao, including Vigilance Commissioner and Commissioner for Administrative reforms. Here are six things you should know about this IAS officer:

• 57-year-old Vaidyanathan is the 1981 batch IAS officer with a graduate degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. She comes from an eminent family that belongs to Nagercoil in south Tamil Nadu. She is the daughter of former Reserve Bank of India governor, S Venkitaramanan, in charge of India's central bank when liberalisation began in the early '90s.

• Her induction as the new chief secretary makes her the most senior IAS officer working in Tamil Nadu currently.  The only IAS officer senior to her is 1980 batch IAS officer Shaktikanta Das who is the Economic Affairs Secretary in the Government of India.

• Being the most senior IAS in TN, she still has two-and-a-half years to be in service before she retires.

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• In 2011, when AIADMK took over, she was appointed as Health Secretary for a year. She played an integral part in the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme which was an amended version of the scheme brought in during DMK’s regime.

• She also headed the Director's post of the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) besides being a significant policy advisor in several wings of the TN government. She held other positions such as School Education Secretary (2005-2006) and Member of the State Planning Commission (2007-2008).

• In the land department, she is the Commissioner of Land Administration, a position held by her since 2013. She has played a major role here as well in preparing the rules for the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

Picture credit- The New Indian Express