IAS officer Sharada Muralidharan has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Kerala. She has replaced her husband and IAS V Venu. V Venu retired on 31 August. Sharing the video of the handover ceremony, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also praised it. He said, for the first time in India (as far as can be remembered) the retiring Chief Secretary of Kerala Dr. V Venu has handed over his post to his wife Sharada Muralidharan. Both are IAS officers of the 1990 batch. Venu’s wife comes after him in terms of seniority.
Shashi Tharoor claimed that this is happening for the first time in India. However, only last month, IAS Shalini Rajneesh took over her husband’s post in Karnataka. Her husband IAS Rajneesh Goyal was the Chief Secretary of Karnataka. After retiring on 31st July, he handed over the post to his wife and 1989 batch Shalini Rajneesh. Shalini Rajneesh is also the second bureaucrat who has taken over the post of Chief Secretary in Karnataka after her husband. Earlier in the year 2000, BK Bhattacharya had handed over the post to his wife Teresa Bhattacharya after retirement.
The Kerala government confirmed Muralidharan’s appointment on August 21. Sharada Muralidharan was working as Additional Chief Secretary (Planning and Economic Affairs) in the Kerala government. V Venu and wife Sharada Muralidharan are 1990 batch IAS officers. V Venu was a few months older than Muralidharan. Muralidharan will remain in this post for the next eight months.
V Venu was bid farewell on Friday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also present on this occasion. He said that there have been examples in Kerala when husband-wife IAS duos have worked on important posts but this is the first time that after a Chief Secretary, his wife is getting this responsibility. The Chief Minister said that even for the post of Collector, the husband and wife have handed over the charge to each other. Muralidharan said that it feels very strange that she has to bid farewell to her husband. She said that they worked together as civil servants but did not think that they would not retire together.