The government on Thursday appointed Rajendra Kishor Chettri as the new chief secretary.

Chettri succeeded Som Lal Subedi who is set to join the Asian Development Bank in Manila of the Philippines.

The new chief secretary assumed office on Thursday itself.

Chettri, who hails from Gorkha, is the senior most among 68 secretaries of the government of Nepal and will hold the top civil service post until October 25.

After assuming office, Chettri vowed to manage secretary-level meetings, which are chaired by the chief secretary, and work to simplify Cabinet decisions.

I will work as a facilitator to create an effective link between the Prime Minister’s Office, the executive and ministries, said Chettri after assuming office, adding that he would refrain from interfering in decision-making of different ministries. Before his appointment as the chief secretary, Chettri was at the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.

Chettri’s appointment on Thursday takes Shanta Raj Subedi, Shanta Bahadur Shrestha and Narayan Gopal Malego out of contention for the top post in bureaucracy, as they are set to retire on October 19. Earlier, their names were doing the rounds for the post of chief secretary. Subedi is finance secretary, Shrestha is education secretary and Malego is secretary of the Election Commission.

After Chettri, Home Secretary Lok Darsan Regmi, Commerce Secretary Naindra Prasad Uphadhya and Tourism Secretary Shankar Adhikari will be in the race for the top government service post.

The government has picked Chettri for the post of chief secretary as he is the senior most among the secretaries, said Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki after Thursday’s Cabinet meeting. Chettri joined civil service (law) in 1984 as a section officer.

He was promoted to the post of secretary five years ago. He then he served at Nepal Law Commission, Ministry of Energy, Office of the Vice President, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority and Water and Energy Commission before being transferred to the Ministry of Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation. He holds a master’s degree in international law from University of Brussels, Belgium.