chandigarh the ut administration has informed the central government that vijay namdevrao zade a 2002 batch ias officer of punjab cadre whose name was recommended for the post of finance secretary has not completed his threeyear coolingoff period a development that could delay the appointmentthe reply came after the department of personnel and training of the central government raised a query the administration got the information from the punjab government and sent the information to the governmentzade served with the maharashtra government on interstate deputation and returned to his parent cadre punjab in september 2018 implying that his coolingoff period would be completed only by september this year according to the recordsin its reply to the administration the punjab government had accepted the fact calling zade a good officer with better experience of service punjab termed him as the most suitable officer for the post the ball is now in the court of the centrewe have sent the details to the central government the punjab government is pushing his name by terming him as an experienced officer but it is the centre which will look into the matter before taking the final call sources saidthe finance secretary is a crucial post in the administration after ut adviser and home secretary besides issues related to finances the officer looks after the engineering department and urban planningpost vacant for 6 monthsfinance secretary a k sinha a 1996 batch ias officer of punjab cadre had got relieved from ut after completing his threeyear deputation period on september 1 last year the post is vacant since then home secretary arun kumar gupta is holding the additional charge of finance secretarypunjab panelpunjab government had sent a panel of three ias officers to the ut administration for the post of finance secretary in july 2020 the three were 2000 batch ias officer kumar rahul 2002 batch ias officer vijay namdeorao zade and 2004 batch ias officer arun sekhri though rahul was the seniormost officer in the panel the name of zade was recommended for the post