Putting an end to speculation that chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi would be given a 3-month extension of service, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, on Saturday, chose to go for a fresh face, keeping with tradition being followed over the past few years.
Kiran Kumar Reddy choose Minnie Mathew, an Indian Administrative Service Officer of the 1976 batch, as the new chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh.
Mathew becomes the second woman bureaucrat to become the state chief secretary after Sathi Nair, who held the post in 2002 during the Telugu Desam government. Both women hail from Kerala.
Before being elevated to the top bureaucratic office, Minnie was chief commissioner of Land Administration, a post that ranks next to the chief secretary in the state IAS hierarchy. She will retire on 28 February 2013.
Mathew succeeds Pankaj Dwivedi of 1975 batch, who retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation on Saturday.
According to relevant sources, Dwivedi, like some of his predecessors, may be "rehabilitated" into some official post in the near future. (INN)