Rajiva Sinha, the additional chief secretary in the health and family welfare department, will take over as the chief secretary of Bengal on September 30 following the retirement of incumbent Malay De the same day.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted on Thursday afternoon wishing Sinha on his appointment at the helm of the state bureaucracy.

“Our present chief secretary, Malay Kumar De, is going to retire on September 30, 2019. He served the state very well. We wish him all the best…. Rajiva Sinha, at present the additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, will be the new chief secretary,” Mamata tweeted.

A senior official said the chief minister had followed the standard method of appointment while choosing De’s successor.

“There is Debasis Sen, who is a 1985-batch IAS officer and senior to Sinha (a 1986-batch officer). But Sen will retire in four months and no government would like to put an officer in charge of the administration for such a short period. Sinha, being the senior-most after Sen, was considered for the post,” the official said.

Sources in Nabanna, however, said the decision had surprised some officers as the chief minister had on occasions in the past not adhered to such a model.

Sinha, who has also worked in the industries and MSME departments, had earlier this year handled the protest by junior doctors of government hospitals over security. “The way the situation was handled, the top brass was impressed. The government was also satisfied with Sinha’s work in the industries and health departments,” a source said.