CHENNAI: Seven IAS officers, including Finance Secretary T Udhayachandran, have been promoted as additional chief secretaries, without changing their present post.

An order issued by Chief Secretary N Muruganandam said, Principal Secretary and Chennai Metro Rail Limited managing director MA Siqqiue, Commissioner for Economics and Statistics R Jaya, Secretary to Health & Family Welfare P Senthilkumar, TIDCO chairperson Sandhya Venugopal Sharma, Principal Secretary to Finance T Udhayachandran, Surveyor General of India Hitesh Kumar S Makwana, and Principal Secretary to School Education B Chandra Mohan have been promoted as additional chief secretaries.

With this promotion the officers, all from the 1995 batch of TN cadre, are now eligible to become the Chief Secretary in the future. Six IAS officers have been promoted as principal secretaries without changing their portfolios.

The officers are Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik, Commissioner for Disaster Management Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan, Secretary to Human Resources Management Department C Samayamoorthy, Secretary to Public & Rehabilitation Department Reeta Harish Thakkar, Secretary to Social Welfare & Women Empowerment Department Jayashree Muralidharan.