Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga has urged the Centre to roll back the appointment of the new state chief secretary. Zoramthanga made the request to Home Minister Amit Shah in a letter, citing the unfamiliarity of state ministers with the Hindi language, according to multiple media reports. Zoramthanga has recommended the name of Additional Chief Secretary JC Ramthanga for the chief secretary’s post in place of Renu Sharma.

“After the retirement of my Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaugo of Gujarat Cadre, I requested my present Additional Chief Secretary JC Ramthanga (Manipur Cadre) to be the next Chief Secretary. However, the Home Ministry has posted Mrs Renu Sharma as the new Chief Secretary,” the chief minister said in the letter dated October 29, reports NDTV.

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Renu Sharma, an AGMUT cadre IAS officer of the 1988 batch, was appointed by the Centre on October 28 to take charge from November 1 as chief secretary of Mizoram. However, the state government also ordered Ramthanga to take charge of the post, leaving Mizoram with two chief secretaries.

Zoramthanga said some of his ministers weren’t comfortable with the English language. “With such a background, a Chief Secretary without the knowledge of a working standard Mizo language will never be an effective and efficient Chief Secretary,” the chief minister said in his letter.

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He said the Centre-appointed chief secretary had no knowledge of “the working standard of Mizo language since the creation of the state of Mizoram.”

He claimed it had been a standard practice for successive governments at the Centre to appoint a chief secretary to a state only if has a basic understanding of its working language.

Zoramthanga also sought a “special favour” from Shah on the chief secretary’s appointment, saying he has been the “only one among Northeast States, who has been a faithful partner of the NDA from the beginning.”