Kerala: Incumbent chief secretary to hand over charge of state to his IAS wife

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala will be witnessing an IAS officer handing over the charge of state chief secretary to his spouse on Saturday.

Incumbent chief secretary Dr. V Venu, who is retiring from service on Saturday, will be handing over charge to his wife Sarada Muraleedharan. Both of them are 1990 batch IAS officers.

Even as IAS officer couples had held the chief secretary post in Kerala earlier also, it is for the first time that a wife is immediately succeeding husband as chief secretary.

Speaking at a formal reception to Dr Venu on Friday Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that it was a rare occasion that a husband would be handing over chief secretary's charge to his wife. He also hailed the key roles played by Venu in many disasters including the recent Wayanad landslide.

Sarada Muraleedharan has been serving as additional chief secretary of the local self government department.