Asha Sharma, a retired IAS officer, and Lt Gen B.S. Yadav (retd) today took oath as information commissioners, along with three others, including Ashok Mehta and M.L. Ranga, both advocates, and Prem Vir.

“We are utilising their talent for the benefit of the government and there is no harm in appointing former IAS officers to important positions in the state,” said a senior government official.

While in service, Asha Sharma had lost the race to become chief secretary of the state despite her proximity to the powers-that-be. However, the government has now included her in the list of information commissioners.

Since taking over the state three years ago, the Congress government has adjusted all the three chief secretaries who retired during this regime. They include G. Madhvan, who was made chief election commissioner, and Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, who was appointed information commissioner. After these two officers, Hooda made Prem Prashant the state chief secretary, who also was later adjusted as member of the Administrative Reforms Panel.

This time too, Hooda has rehabilitated another IAS officer — M.C. Gupta — who retired more than a decade ago as state chief secretary. Gupta was taken as a member of the reforms panel.

Prior to them all, the government had appointed former chief secretary A.N. Mathur as chairman of the Third Finance Commission. The government had also appointed another retired chief secretary — Sunil Ahuja — as adviser to the government on National Capital Region (NCR) development, but had to end his tenure after it refused to meet certain demands raised by the officer.