The chief secretary’s office on the fifth floor at the Mantralaya will continue to remain a male bastion — at least for the next 15 years.
The state lost an opportunity to have a woman chief secretary when the chief minister on Monday announced that JP Dange, senior-most Dalit officer, would take over from Johny Joseph.
Also, the list of IAS officers does not show anyone who will be eligible for the post for another 15 years.
Almost all women IAS officers in the Mantralaya and the BMC expressed their disappointment on Tuesday. “We have served as secretary of finance, home, revenue, and general administration departments,” an IAS woman officer said. “Why are we discounted when it comes to taking charge as the chief secretary?”
Iyengar, however, took the development in her stride. “I am disappointed for missing the chance. But that is all right,” she said. The additional chief secretary in the home ministry wants to set things right in the police department where officers at the helm are trying to find faults with each other in connection with the 26/11 attack.
Another woman IAS officer termed it a setback for their cadre. “We were expecting Iyengar to become the chief secretary,” she said. Also, the seniority rule was surprising, she said. “In the past, politicians have bypassed senior officers to put someone of their choice in the chair. Moreover, Dange and Iyengar belonged to the 1973 batch.”
In the Mantralaya, several theories were doing the rounds why the government did not choose a woman for the post. “The comfort factor came in the way,” an officer from the chief minister’s office said. “Nobody is discounting that women are as capable as men in the administrative services. But the nature of the job is such that politicians do not feel confident handing over the reins to a woman officer.”
Another officer said it was ironic that Iyengar was not chosen for the post. She first drafted the comprehensive reservation policy for women in 1993-94. It later became a model for the entire country, she said.
