Ajay Kumar Bhalla, a 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, was appointed home secretary in August 2019. He was to retire in November 2020 after attaining 60 years of age. His tenure was first extended on October 17, 2020 till August 22, 2021. Bhalla s term was extended for one-year each in 2021 and in 2022.
Until now, officers of the level of Under Secretary and above were only attending office due to the coronavirus-induced restrictions imposed in March.
The Centre had in May asked 50 percent of its employees below the level of Deputy Secretary to work from their offices, while implementing different time slots in its effort to further check the spread of the coronavirus.
The officers/staff shall follow staggered timings to avoid over-crowding in offices/workplaces as decided by the heads of department, it said.
“The government servants at all levels are to attend office on all working days without any exemption to any category of employees,” said the order issued late Saturday to all the central government departments.