The year 2010 will see a big change at the top-level bureaucracy as 43 senior IAS officers holding the rank of secretaries to the Government of India would be retiring this year.

This is rather unusual for so many senior level bureaucrats to retire in such a short time. But then thanks to the government's lop-sided policy, officers from the 1976 batch are ocupying 85 key positions. It is not clear yet what prompted the Department of Personnel and Training to take such an absurd step. Retirement of such a largenumber of senior officials would not only create administrative hassles, it would hamper the decision making process.

The government is bound to face the heat up the demanding allies like the DMK and the Trinamool Congress who would want their favourite bureaucrats to hold top positions in as many ministries they can possibly wrest.

have corrupted the administration.

Apart from secretary level officials, there would be 12 vacancies for additional secretaries and 76 for joint secretaries.

Some of the secretary-level officials retiring in 2010 are as follows: