The Modi government on Wednesday gave a green signal to the Jagan government to extend the term of Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney tenure for a period of three months from July 1 to September 30.

The central government’s approval comes after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking extension of Nilam Sawhney’s tenure for a period of six months. Nilam Sawhney took charge as the Chief Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh on November 13, 2019, and will retire on June 30 this year. Jagan wrote a letter to Modi seeking her extension as her services are required in Andhra Pradesh in view of Covid-19 pandemic.

Sawhney belongs to the 1984 batch of the IAS and from AP Cadre. She is the first woman CS in bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. She is also, perhaps, the only Chief Secretary in the country to receive contempt notices from the High Court for not complying with the court’s order to remove the blue, green and white colours (YSRCP coloours) from Gram Panchayat buildings. In what was regarded as a blot in her blemishless track record, Nilam Sawhney had to cut a sorry face in the High Court in the removal of YSRCP colours case.