Amid speculations of extension to incumbent chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh Manoj Kumar Singh, senior IAS officer Shashi Prakash Goyal has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh. His tenure would be of 18 months as he is scheduled to superannuate in January 2027.
Goyal, a 1989-batch IAS officer, is a close aide of Yogi and was serving as the Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Goyal was natural choice for Yogi after chances of extension to Manoj Kumar Singh ended.
On July 3, the Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh had written to the Department of Appointments and Personnel of the central Government to extend the service of Manoj Singh.
However, some powerful ministers in the Modi government are said to have opposed the extension to Singh.
Who is Shashi Prakash Goyal
Shashi Prakash aka SP Goyal's first posting as an IAS officer was as Assistant Magistrate in Etawah district. He was also posted as Chief Development Officer in Aligarh, Bahraich and Meerut districts. He has also served as the District Magistrate of Mathura, Etawah, Prayagraj and Deoria.
He served as Secretary, Planning Department and Principal Secretary, Programme Implementation Department in the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh.
Apart from Uttar Pradesh, he was also in Delhi on central deputation for a few years. After the formation of the Modi government at the Centre, he was then joint secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource and Higher Education.
His return to Uttar Pradesh from Delhi happened in 2017, when the BJP government was formed in UP. He was then appointed as the Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Since then, he has been holding the post and is known as one of the officers close to CM Yogi.
No nonsense officer
It is believed that officer SP Goyal doesn't work under pressure. His image is of a fearless and unbiassed officer. He has the courage to call spade a spade.
In 2024, Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh had sent a file to the Chief Minister's office for transfer of 750 assistant engineers of the irrigation department. He had returned the file without acting on it.
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
