GDA gets Umashankar as officer on special duty

The Haryana government posted 1993 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer V Umashankar as officer on special duty (OSD) of the proposed Gurgaon Development Authority on his return from central deputation on Friday. Umashankar will take his role as OSD from Monday.

Umashankar’s transfer comes into effect only days before an expected official announcement of the authority on November 1 during the golden jubilee celebration of Haryana formation.

Umashankar will have his headquarter at Gurgaon, with the additional commissioner and joint commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and administrator of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) assisting Umashankar, sources said.

They have been attached to the OSD in addition to their duties, according to an order issued by state chief secretary Depinder Singh Dhesi.

The government issued Umashankar’s posting order on his return to the state from the centre after a gap of seven years. He was earlier posted as joint secretary in the National Security Council Secretariat.

During his visit to the city on September 5, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had made an unofficial announcement about the formation of the GDA. At a press conference, Khattar had announced that the process of forming GDA will start on Haryana Day (November 1).

The proposal for formation of a new authority has been a long pending demand of many leaders including Union minister and local MP Rao Inderjit Singh. He holds the view that a single authority for all types of development is essential since the city is the financial hub of the state and needs faster approval for developmental work. Currently, the approvals come from Chandigarh.

The draft proposal to form the GDA as an agency for infrastructure-related work is modelled on the lines of Delhi Development Authority and other development authority models followed by Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Hyderabad.