Draft:Samaan Shekhar

Samaan Shekhar (earlier know as B. Chandrashekhar.    ) (born 21 June 1978) is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of 2002 batch. He worked as Collector and District Magistrate in six Districts of Madhya Pradesh and also served as Secretary in the Chief Minister Office, Divisional Commissioner of Jabalpur Division and Vice Chancellor of Madhya Pradesh Medical Sciences University. He was Secretary to Government of Madhya Pradesh when in June 2023, he took voluntary retirement from the IAS to work in the field of education, environment, socio-cultural change, human dignity, gender neutrality. He now works full time in a socio-cultural organisation named Movement21, which he cofounded in the year 2017, with an objective to make India a great civic nation. He is lawyer and educator and founder of Attain IAS coaching institute, where he teaches Constitution, Law and Administration. He is a writer and a public intellectual.

Early Life: Samaan Shekhar was born in Gondia, Maharashtra on 21 June 1978. His father was a teacher in Industrial Training Institute. He spent his early childhood and did his schooling from Manoharbhai Patel Municipal High School, Gondia. He graduated in Production Engineering from Nagpur University in the year 2000.

Early Career:

He cleared the Civil Services Examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission and joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the year 2002 as one of the youngest officers in his maiden attempt. After completing the training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, he joined at Khandwa District as Assistant Collector on training in June 2023. He joined as Sub-Divisional Magistrate at Sausar, District Chhindwara. During his stint as Chief Executive Officer of Zila Panchayat at Sidhi District he excelled in the implementation of the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme that was launched in 2006.

Six stints as Collector and District Magistrate

He took over as Collector and District Magistrate of newly created Alirajpur District in western Madhya Pradesh, in May 2008. He then went on to work as Collector Dindori District (2009-2011), Collector Betul (2011-2013), Collector Balaghat (2013-2014). For a short period, in 2014, he served as Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Dairy Federation, (more known for its brand ‘Sanchi’) before joining as Collector Jhabua District in April 2014. His last posting as Collector was in Ratlam District where he served for more that two years (2015-2017). During this tenure, he designed and implemented ‘Sadhikar Abhiyan’ which meant ‘Entitlement Campaign’ aimed at taking the administration to the doorstep of the people by visiting every household in the District, identification of all the people who are eligible and entitled to receive some benefit under any central or state run scheme or policy and providing the benefit, thus ensuring that no individual entitled to receive a benefit is left out for want of information or because of administrative lapses. This campaign benefited over 200 thousand individuals of the district.

As Secretary in Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Madhya Pradesh

After a stint as Collector Ratlam, he joined as Additional Secretary to Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in June 2017 at Bhopal. In 2018, he was empanelled as Joint Secretary or equivalent post in the Government of India. In the same year he was promoted as Secretary to Chief Minister and continued in that office till April 2020. During his stint at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), he worked with Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan and also with shri Kamal Nath, two Chief Ministers coming from two different political parties. Along with his stint as Secretary, he also worked as Mission Director of SAMAGRA in Social Justice Department, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh Electronic Development Corporation and Director of the Atal Bihari Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis.

Later, he served as Commissioner of Tribal Welfare Department and also as Commissioner of the Scheduled Caste Development Department from April 2020 to September 2020. His last posting while being in the Indian Administrative Service was Divisional Commissioner, Jabalpur. During this period, he also worked as Administrator of the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation and Chairman of the Jabalpur Development Authority

As Vice Chancellor of Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University

Samaan Shekhar was appointed by the Governor of Madhya Pradesh as the Vice Chancellor of the Madhya Pradesh Medical Sciences University where he is credited with setting up robust administrative systems in the University, conducting many dozen pending examinations and issuance of results that had been pending for more than a year. He is also credited with giving the University its own building and organising the first Convocation of the University.

Advocacy

Samaan Shekhar has been working on social issues since 2017 with a socio-cultural organisation called Movement21. After taking voluntary retirement in 2023, he has been devoting most of his time to address social, cultural, economic issues and advocates equality, liberty, gender neutrality, environment protection, equal-free-high quality education, etc.

He is also a lawyer who takes keen interest in the constitutional matters and Public Interest Litigations.