CHANDIGARH:  Urvashi Gulati, a 1975-batch IAS officer is the new Chief Secretary of Haryana.  She is the third woman IAS Officer of the state who has been selected to assume the prestigious office of Chief Secretary.

Dharam Vir, the present Chief Secretary is retiring on October 31, 2009.

As a Chief Secretary, Gulati will be looking after General Administration, Personnel, Training, Vigilance, Parliamentary Reforms Departments and Secretary, In charge of Plan Coordination and Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary. Earlier she was holding the charge of Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management, Consolidation, Development and Panchayats and Secretary, BAC and Commissioner Gurdawara Elections. Meenakshi Anand Chaudhry, Gulati's elder sister and Mrs Promilla Issar are the other two women, who headed the bureaucracy of the state. 

Urvashi Gulati was born at Ambala and was educated in Chandigarh.  She did her graduation from Government College for Women, Chandigarh and Post-Graduation in Political Science from Panjab University. She was awarded University Gold Medal for standing first in B.A. Honours in Political Science. 

She topped in M.A. in Political Science and was awarded Gold Medal for securing highest marks in the Social Sciences Faculty.  After doing her M.A., she was appointed a lecturer in Panjab University.  She appeared in the IAS examination and joined 1975 batch and was allotted to Haryana Cadre.

Gulati started her career as Sub Divisional Officer at Palwal.  As Additional Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon she was deeply engrossed in rural development & poverty alleviation programmes. As Administrator HUDA, Faridabad and Gurgaon, she contributed to Urban Development in a significance way. Gulati also held a number of assignments in the corporate sector.

Gulati has the distinction of serving as Secretary to Governor Haryana for seven years.  As Secretary to Governor she was assisting the Governor-Chancellor in constitutional matters and in attending to university affairs as Chancellor of four universities in the State. As Member Secretary of Kurukshetra Development Board, Mrs Gulati was deeply involved with the development of Kurukshetra as heritage of India. Krishna Museum and Panorama are important landmarks in the development of the historical place.

As Secretary to Government of Haryana, she has steered the departments of PWD (B&R), Architecture, Irrigation, Cooperation and Industrial Training & Vocational Education.  She was Chief Electoral Officer at the time of General Elections to Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha Elections, 2005. She was nominated by the Election Commission of India as International Observer to Sri Lanka at the General Parliamentary Elections 2001.

Gulati attended Workshop as Rural Development and Poverty alleviation at Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK in 1993.  She successfully negotiated loan for Highways with World Bank at Washington. She has visited Israel and Australia in connection with irrigation systems.  She takes keen interest in Gender issues and has contributed articles in journals. As Principal Secretary, Health & Medical Education, she attended Asia-Pacific workshop on Continuum of Care for Maternal and New Born Health at Bangkok (Thailand). She also visited Sweden for presentation in a daylong WHO Conference on Polio. She visited Indonesia to participate proposed study to observe Rural Sanitation Innovation in Indonesia. To study Rain Water Harvesting as member of delegation led by Secretary Department of Drinking Water Supply, Government of India and to review of Sanitation programme she visited Trivandrum/Maldives.

Gulati conceived the innovation scheme of Delivery Huts to provide safe delivery which has been adjudged as a good practice by UNDP and Planning Commission of India.