Patna,(BiharTimes): After the sudden shunting of Abhayanand from the post of Director General of Police the appointment of Anjani Kumar Singh, a 1981 batch IAS officer, as the chief secretary of Bihar, is causing heartburn at the higher echelons of the state bureaucracy as he was eighth in the seniority list of the officers.

Unlike in the case of Abhayanand nobody can at least held the RJD responsible for the elevation of Anjani as the chief secretary. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and a couple of retired and serving police officials see Lalu Prasad’s hand in the removal of Abhayanand.

SuMo went to the extent of alleging that officials belonging to a particular caste were being targeted and shunted out from their posts.

Instead the appointment of Anjani Kumar Singh has the stamp of authority of former chief minister Nitish Kumar. Anjani had served him as the principal secretary when he was the chief minister till May 17 last. He had been occupying this post since August 2012.

Anjani, who will retire on February 2018 will thus become the longest serving chief secretary in the recent past, provided he does not face Abhayanand like situation in future.

Anjani’s elevation has marred the prospect of 1979 and 1980 batch officers. Usually development commissioners are made the chief secretary. However, in the recent time K C Saha was not made the chief secretary though he was the development commissioner.

Similarly, this time development commissioner Alok Kumar Sinha, a 1979 batch officer, has been ignored. He has been made the chief advisor in the state planning board, considered as the dumping ground for the unwanted officers.

Narendra Kumar Sinha of the 1980 batch, who was principal secretary, IT, has been made advisor in the same department.

Another senior IAS officer of the 1980 batch, Manoj Kumar Srivastava, has been kept as departmental enquiry advisor.

Anjani’s batch mates, including S K Negi, C Lalsota and Vijoy Prakash, will retire in 2016. Even his juniors like Vyasji and Rajesh Gupta, both 1982, will retire in 2016 while Sudhir K Rakesh and Rameshwar Singh, both 1983, will retire before 2018. Only two officers posted in Bihar, Navin K Verma and Shishir Sinha, both 1982 batch, will retire after 2018.