A 1997-batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre Rakesh Gupta has been appointed as joint secretary in President’s Secretariat in New Delhi for five years.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had recently approved the proposal for his appointment.
In September 2021, the Haryana government had placed the services of Gupta at the disposal of the central government on his appointment as joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development. After serving in that ministry for a year, Gupta has now moved to the President’s Secretariat.
A former additional principal secretary to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Gupta earlier also looked after Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save the girl child, educate the girl child) programme as its state nodal officer.
Haryana had witnessed a remarkable increase of 52 points in sex ratio at birth during the five years of 2014-19. As per the official figures, the sex ratio of the state had increased from 871 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2014 to 923 girls in 2019.
The state government in 2020 said that the increase in sex ratio was higher than the target set by the central government under ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (B3P) Guidelines. Then Rakesh Gupta had stated: “In January 2015, when the prime minister had launched the B3P campaign from the historic city of Panipat, nobody could have ever imagined that a state like Haryana – which had been struggling for decades over the issue – could ever witness such improvement. However, constant and dedicated efforts by the state government have finally bore fruit and still more has to be done in this direction.”
