The Government of Chhattisgarh has cleared the appointment of senior IAS officer Vikas Sheel as the next Chief Secretary of the state. A 1994-batch officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, Sheel will succeed the present Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain, who is set to retire this month.
Sheel was serving as Executive Director at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, a post he assumed in January 2024 for a three-year term. However, the Union Government recalled him within 16 months of his deputation. As per a Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) order issued on September 12, he was formally relieved from his ADB assignment within 24 hours of the recall.
An engineer by qualification with a B.E. and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, Sheel has served in several critical positions at both the state and central levels. His career includes stints as Collector in Koriya, Bilaspur, and Raipur, besides holding senior roles in Education, Food, General Administration, and Health in the Chhattisgarh Secretariat.
At the Centre, Sheel was actively involved in pandemic preparedness as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and later led the Jal Jeevan Mission as Mission Director in the Ministry of Jal Shakti. His leadership and administrative experience are expected to guide Chhattisgarh’s governance agenda in the coming years.
The formal notification of his appointment as Chief Secretary is awaited.