Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, whose second extension was due to end on December 31, has been given another extension of six months. 

The order for his extension in service was issued on Sunday.

With the third extension, Mishra will be the top-most civil servant of the state beyond the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Official sources said that the extension order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training under the Union Home Ministry at late hours of Saturday but the order of the UP government was issued on Sunday.

The extension of Mishra’s service till June 30, 2024 will deprive around eight senior bureaucrats the chance of becoming the chief secretary as they are due to retire by the middle of next year.

Mishra, who was on deputation to the Centre then, was initially due to retire on December 31, 2021 but two days before that, he was repatriated to his home state for his proposed appointment as the chief secretary and was given his second one-year extension on December 31, 2022.

A 1984 batch officer, he was on deputation to the Centre since 2014 and with the exception of a little over two weeks, had spent the seven years in Delhi at the Urban Development Ministry, first as additional secretary and then as secretary. He was involved in important projects like the Central Vista project and urban transport which includes the Metro Rail projects in UP.

Before leaving UP in 2014, Mishra was on leave for two years. His last posting in 2012 was as principal secretary, home guard.