The post of Secretary, Dept of Rural Development, has been lying vacant since 30 April 2016 after Jugal Kishore Mohapatra's retirement though currently the additional charge of Secretary, DoRD with J S Mathur (IAS:1982:MP) since May 17. More than a month has passed but the Govt is yet to identify an officer who can match the expectations of PMO as Rural Development Secretary. The murmuring over the vacant post revolves around two mutually differing and conflicting views. Some outsiders (outside bureaucracy) believe that Dept of Rural Development (DoRD) rural is yet to draw PM's attention but Union budget allocation towards rural sector (2016-2017 budget) has already made it clear that Rural sector has got top priority of PM & PMO. Contrary to the first view, insiders believe that the govt may be looking for a specific and most competent officer to head DoRD. If this was to be true, the question arises whether there is a dearth of capable officers (across batches 1980, 1981, 1982). Or is this a matter of some specific choice? Power corridors are abuzz that the post would have been kept vacant for want of an officer belonging to 1983 batch of IAS which is yet to be empanelled as secretary. If the latter opinion is the reason, then it would certainly be the first exception in Modi regime as none of the secretaries got in-situ promotion as yet. In that case, DoRD would have first one (in present regime) to have the chief of the department (Secretary) from the same department.