Sujata Saunik: IAS Officer Becomes Maharashtra's First Woman Chief Secretary

Sujata Saunik has broken a 64-year-old pattern by taking over as the first woman to occupy the high post of Chief Secretary of Maharashtra. She is an Indian Administrative Service officer from the 1987 batch and has experience in various areas of public policy and governance at the federal and international levels. Saunik has previously served as part of the Indian Administrative Services and the United Nations, her service spanning over three decades. 

Who is she?

Saunik completed her schooling and higher education in Chandigarh and passed out with merit and many honours from Punjab University.

She is not the first bureaucrat in her family. Her father, brother, two of her aunts, her maternal grandfather, and one of her uncles served in various posts in the IAS, IPS, and IFS.

Saunik began her journey as an assistant collector in Aurangabad and later served as the collector of Jalgaon and municipal commissioner of Nashik.

She was commissioned into the Indian Administrative Service in 1987 after which she served in many positions such as Advisor and Joint Secretary in the National Disaster Management Authority, Principal Secretary of Financial Reform in Maharashtra, and additional chief secretary in Maharashtra.

She was also sent on deputation as part of United Nations missions on several occasions. She was sent to Cambodia in 1992 to help in the success of the first democratic elections in the country, and then to Kosovo in 2000 as the Municipal Administrator of the war-torn ex-Yugoslavia province of Prizren. 

The first woman Chief Secretary of Maharashtra

Saunik succeeded Nitin Kareer for the post of Chief Secretary at a ceremony held at Mantralaya on June 30, which is the state secretariat in south Mumbai. She will reportedly serve in the post for one year, after which she will retire.

The senior IAS officer was serving as the additional chief secretary in the state home department before she was promoted to the position of CS. However, this elevation was not without its challenges. Saunik was superseded twice, despite being the senior IAS officer in the state. The first time, she was superseded when CM Eknath Shinde appointed her husband as chief secretary last year. The second, was when Nitin Kareer took to the post at the beginning of this year. 

Saunik spoke to Hindustan Times about this issue and said, ''The significance of this moment is not lost on me. However, at this point, I would like to remember all the lady IAS officers who were very deserving of the chief secretary’s post but were not considered for various reasons. I am grateful for this opportunity and I will do my best.”

She was referring to previous senior IAS officers such as Chandra Iyengar, Chitkala Zutshi, and Medha Gadgil who were superseded by their juniors, as she had, for the post of CS despite being more qualified.