The Haryana government has formally written to the Union government seeking the repatriation of four Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, underlining a growing shortage of senior bureaucrats in the state administration, a senior state official said.
Who the state has sought back
The four officers named in the request are V Umashankar (1993 batch), Rakesh Gupta (1997 batch), Nitin Kumar Yadav (2000 batch) and Vikas Gupta (2001 batch). The Centre has not yet responded to the state plea, according to the official.
| Officer | Batch | Current posting (as reported) |
|---|---|---|
| V Umashankar | 1993 | Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (since 1 Nov 2024) |
| Rakesh Gupta | 1997 | Additional Secretary, President's Secretariat (since Nov 2022) |
| Nitin Kumar Yadav | 2000 | — |
| Vikas Gupta | 2001 | — |
Recent months have seen several senior retirements that have added to the workload and left key posts vacant. IAS officers Anita Yadav and Arun Kumar Gupta — the latter was Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister — retired on 30 September. Earlier, D Suresh retired on 31 August and Raja Sekar Vundru on 31 July.
More retirements loom
Further departures are scheduled in the coming months. Sanjay Joon, Commissioner of the Faridabad Division, will retire at the end of October. Officers handling significant portfolios — Sudhir Rajpal, currently looking after Home, Environment, Forest and Wildlife, and Finance Departments, and Geeta Bharti, Commissioner of the Hisar Division — are due to retire on 30 November. The state's Chief Secretary, Anurag Rastogi, is scheduled to retire on 31 December 2026; he was previously granted a second extension on the state government's recommendation.
Against a sanctioned strength of 226 IAS officers, Haryana currently has 179 officers posted, leaving 47 vacancies — a shortfall of 20.8%, the official said.
"The request for repatriation reflects a pressing requirement to fill senior-level positions to ensure uninterrupted governance and administrative continuity," the official said.
Additional complications from probe-linked charges
The state administration's options to redeploy or promote internally are further constrained by the appearance of five serving officers in a CBI chargesheet related to the Rs 657-crore IDFC First Bank–AU Small Finance Bank matter. The five named in the chargesheet are Pankaj Agarwal, Ram Kumar Singh, Vineet Garg, Mohd Shayin and Saket Kumar. The official indicated they are unlikely to be considered for high-profile postings while the matter is sub judice.
- Vacancy pressure: 47 vacant IAS posts out of 226 sanctioned.
- Imminent exits: Multiple retirements in the next two months, including key divisional commissioners and department heads.
- Legal constraints: Five officers named in a CBI chargesheet reduce the pool of officers fit for senior assignments.
What the repatriation would mean
If the Centre agrees to repatriate the four officers, the state would gain experienced hands familiar with Haryana's administrative milieu. V Umashankar, who served as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister from 2020 to 2024, is seen as close to the state leadership, while Rakesh Gupta has held sensitive assignments, according to the official summary of postings. The letter to the Centre does not, however, guarantee immediate deployment; inter-cadre movements and repatriation requests are subject to Central approval and the officers' current commitments.
The official emphasised that the repatriation request comes amid attempts to manage day-to-day administration and to ensure continuity in departments affected by recent departures. The Centre's response, and any subsequent reassignment, will determine whether the state can arrest the widening gap in senior-level administrative capacity.
No timeline for the Centre's reply was available at the time of reporting, and the state government has not announced any interim arrangements to fill the vacancies pending a decision.
