Minnie has major task on hand

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Minnie Mathew, who was appointed chief secretary on Saturday, is a 1976 batch IAS officer and the second woman, after Sathi Nair, to serve as CS in the state. Ms Nair served as CS for nearly a year and incidentally, both hail from Kerala. Ms Mathew started her career in AP as sub-collector at Rajampet and later went on to become the first and only woman collector of Hyderabad.

She has also served as secretary of AP Public Service Commission, secretary of the State Election Commission, principal industries secretary and principal secretary of women's development and child welfare. Ms Mathew will be in the post for about eight months before she retires in February 2013. Principal secretary (political) Ajay Mishra, special secretary (protocol) Ram-ana Reddy, secretary (services) B. Venkateshwar Rao and other officials were present when she assumed charge.

Though there were speculations until Friday that Mr Dwivedi would be given a three-month extension and Ms Mathew would be appoi-nted later, the CM decided to elevate Ms Mathew on Saturday itself. She had been serving as CCLA, a post that ranks next to the chief secretary in the state’s IAS hierarchy. Ms Mathew assumes charge as chief secretary at a stage when the bureaucracy is going through trying times, what with the on-going CBI investigations into cases such as the Obulapuram mining scam, Emaar scam, Jagan illegal investments case and the controversial GOs issued during YSR regime.

While two senior IAS officers — Y. Srilakshmi and B.P. Acharya — are in jail, nearly a dozen other IAS officers have been questioned by the CBI regarding various GOs issued by the YSR government between 2004 and 2009 pertaining to land allotments and mining leases. The CBI’s questioning and arrest of officials have led to confrontations between the Cabinet and bureaucracy with the latter expressing unhappiness over holding them accountable for decisions taken by the Cabinet.
Ms Mathew was the special chief secretary, GAD, before taking over as CS.

During the inter-cadre deputation to Kerala, she was special officer for a new district, Pathana-mthitta in Kerala and worked as secretary, PWD in Kerala government. She has also been on Central deputation as secretary, COIR Board and was the chairman of the Coconut Development Board.

She has also served as controller at VSSC, Isro at Thiruvananthapuram for a short stint. Her husband, Mr Mathew C. Kunnumkal, himself a recently-retired IAS officer, was the director general of NIRD, Rajendranagar and is now member of the Kerala State Administrative Tribunal.