Bhubaneswar: Senior IAS officer Aditya Prasad Padhi’s long innings as Odisha’s chief secretary will come to an end on Monday, but was he the longest-serving top bureaucrat of the eastern state?
Padhi, a 1983-batch IAS officer, took over as chief secretary on November 30, 2015, and continued in the post for three years eight months and 20 days. This was the longest time for someone to occupy the coveted chair during Naveen Patnaik’s uninterrupted 19-year-old rule as the Chief Minister, beginning March 5, 2000.
But Padhi was not the longest-serving chief secretary of Odisha. If we take into account the pre-independence era then P T Mansfield was the first chief secretary of Odisha, which was carved out on April 1, 1936, based on linguistic considerations. He served as the top babu for over four years.
When India achieved Independence on August 15, 1947, Arturhugh Kemp was donning the chief secretary’s mantle. He was succeeded by B C Mukherjee, the first Indian to assume office of Odisha’s chief secretary, on December 5, 1948. B Mukherjee replaced him on December 11, 1949, and continued till June 8, 1956. By being the CS for six years five months and 29 days, he earns the distinction of being longest serving CS in one spell.
However, B Sivaraman, who succeeded B Mukherjee as CS on June 12, 1956, was the longest occupant of the top seat spread over two stints. His maiden innings ended on September 10, 1959, but he was back in the top job on July 8, 1961, and shouldered the responsibility till May 8, 1965. So in all he was CS for over seven years and a month. Between Sivaraman’s two stints, V Ramanathan served as the state’s top bureaucrat.
Among the others, A K Barren had a long run of nearly five years: from May 9, 1965, to May 2, 1970. In times more recent, S M Patnaik (Senior) (two years 11 months); R N Das (two years 10 months); Ajit Kumar Tripathy (two years nine months) and Bijay Patnaik (two years ten months) have had comparatively longer terms of close to three years.
Asit Tripathy, a 1986-batch IAS officer, would take over as Odisha’s 43rd chief secretary on Monday. He is due to superannuate from government service in December, 2020.
