Keshni Anand Arora new Haryana chief secretary

The Haryana government Sunday appointed senior IAS officer Keshni Anand Arora as the state's new chief secretary.

Arora, 58, replaces D S Dhesi, who retired on June 30, an official order said.

Arora previously served as additional chief secretary, Haryana government, and financial commissioner, Revenue and Disaster Management and Consolidation Departments.

She will be the 33rd cabinet secretary of Haryana since it was carved out as a separate state in 1966.

The 1983 Haryana cadre IAS officer will also hold the charge of general administration, personnel, training, parliamentary affairs, administrative reforms departments and secretary in-charge of plan coordination, the order said.

Notably, in a state infamous for skewed sex ratio, Keshni comes from a family where two of her sisters have served as Haryana's chief secretary earlier.

Keshni's predecessors in the post include Meenakshi Anand Chaudhary and Urvashi Gulati, her sisters.

Meenakshi was the state's first chief secretary when she took the charge in 2006 while Urvashi occupied the coveted post in 2009.

Keshni's father Jagdish Chander was a professor of political science at Panjab University here. During his career, many of his students made it to the IAS.