Bengaluru: The state government on Wednesday issued an order appointing Subhash Chandra Khuntia as the new Chief Secretary of the state. Khuntia will assume office on October 1. He will succeed Arvind Jadhav, who is retiring on Friday.

The names of Additional Chief Secretary Ratna Prabha and S K Pattanayak were doing the rounds. There were rumours on Upendra Tripathy becoming the Chief Secretary but he would be retiring next month and it might have made Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to opt for Khuntia who is known as a upright IAS officer.

The sources said Ratna Prabha and Khuntia are from the 1981 IAS batch while Pattanayak is junior to them.