Punjab has sent a panel of three IAS officers to the administrator for the post of Finance Secretary. The officers are Basant Garg, Diprava Lakra and Daljit Singh Mangat. All are Punjab cadre IAS officers from the 2005 batch. Garg is currently on deputation with the central government, with the tenure likely to end on September 10. The Finance Secretary’s post had fallen vacant on June 18 after the tenure of Vijay Namdeorao Zade ended and he was relieved. In the last week of June, Punjab had sent a panel of three Punjab cadre IAS officers to fill the post: Amit Dhaka (2006 batch), Mohammed Tayyab (2007 batch) and Amit Kumar (2008 batch). However, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had rejected this panel and requested a fresh one. Following this, the UT administration had sought a fresh panel from the Punjab government.