New Chairperson of UPSC, Preeti Sudan. (X/ca_interceptor)
New Delhi: Preeti Sudan is set to become the new chairman of UPSC on August 1. Earlier, Manoj Soni had resigned from this post even before the end of his tenure. He said that he was resigning due to personal reasons. UPSC has recently been in the spotlight due to a controversy over Puja Khedkar. Khedkar, a trainee IAS officer from the Maharashtra cadre, has been accused of abusing her position and obtaining a fraudulent Other Backward Class (Non-Creamy Layer) certificate and a fake disability certificate.
Preeti Sudan is a retired IAS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre (1983) batch. In Andhra Pradesh, she was in charge of finance, planning, disaster management, tourism and agriculture. She has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank. She has also worked in the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Defense.
According to media reports, she has about 37 years of experience in various fields of government administration. Preeti has also been the Union Health Secretary. Her tenure as Union Health Secretary ended in 2020. She worked in this post for 3 years. In the last 6 months of her tenure, she handled matters related to the Covid-10 epidemic. She has been working as a UPSC member since 2022. She also got an extension of 3 months before retiring.
Earlier, she was Secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution. She boasts an impressive academic background with an MSc in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics and an MPhil in Economics. Sudan is credited with driving several notable national initiatives, such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Ayushman Bharat. Additionally, she played a crucial role in shaping the National Medical Commission and the bill prohibiting e-cigarettes, demonstrating her significant impact on policy-making.
Preeti has also served as a member of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) since 2020. The IPPR is an independent group that examines how the World Health Organization (WHO) deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following her retirement in February 2021, Preeti Sudan faced accusations of misconduct from the Andhra Pradesh government, alleging she had abused her authority. Seven months later, the state's Chief Secretary, Aditya Nath Das, issued a notice to her, seeking an explanation as to why disciplinary action should not be taken against her for her alleged wrongdoing.
The state government had accused him of violating the provisions of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968. It was also alleged that he ignored the rules and misused his position for his gain.
A report in The Hindu reveals that the case against Preeti Sudan originated in 2005-2006. The issue revolves around the conversion of extraordinary leaves taken during that period into earned or half-paid leaves. At the time, Sudan was serving as the Managing Director of the state's Civil Supplies Corporation. She had taken a year-long extraordinary leave from March 1, 2005, to visit her family in the United States, which is now under scrutiny.
She then applied for the government's permission to use her time in the USA to study with the World Bank's Development Research Unit. Her husband and 1983 batch IAS officer Randeep Sudan was working on a foreign assignment in the USA. Preeti Sudan's leave was then extended till May 31, 2006.
Later, the Under Secretary of the Union Department of Health and Family Welfare converted these leaves into 'earned leave' or 'half paid'. The Andhra Pradesh government objected to this in 2021. The state government alleged that she influenced the employees working under her without the consent of the state government and the Center's Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
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