With the Centre approving the Odisha Government’s request to extend the services of Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra (IAS:1986:OD), for another six months the uniqueness prevails.

This is the second time that Mahapatra's tenure as Chief Secretary has been extended.

It may be recalled that Mahapatra got six months extension beyond his retirement due on February 28, 2022, and now with the second extension, within almost 6 months, his tenure will end on February 28, 2023.

Odisha bureaucracy was abuzz with talks that the Patnaik Government took the first ever kind of move as it did not want to consider Pradeep Kumar Jena (IAS:1989:OD), who is the state's Development Commissioner, for the CS post. 

Back in February speculations were rife that the Chief Minister wanted to bring back Union Secretary for Corporate Affairs Rajesh Verma (IAS:1987:OD), as the state's next CS instead of considering PK Jena. Reportedly, back then either Centre or Verma himself wanted some more time to get relieved from Central deputation and this constrained CM Naveen Patnaik to accord the first-ever extension in the state to a CS in January 2022.

Presumably, Verma was expected to return to his home state but in the meanwhile, he was drafted on August 18 as Secretary President of India  Droupadi Murmu, leaving the Patnaik administration with no other option but to accord a second consecutive extension to SC Mahapatra.

A section of senior-most bureaucrats at the Centre says that the  Narendra Modi administration would have denied the repatriation of Verma in any case as Droupadi Murmu's candidature as India's next President was planned much in advance and thus appointing Verma as the President's Secretary was a forgone conclusion.  

However, it is another matter that back then, none could decode NaMo's plan of making Murmu India’s president and Verma as her Secretary.

Whatever could be the reason two things are pertinent-one SC Mahapatra relished the uniqueness of the Odisha government in extending the term of Chief Secretary for the first time. And secondly, Rajesh Verma had his course of rising to be the Secretary to the top office instead of getting back to the state as its Chief Secretary!