Anup Chandra Pandey was handpicked by Yogi Adityanath on June 28, 2018.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Anup Chandra Pandey has been given a six-month extension by the Union government, a state government spokesman said on Wednesday.

The 1984-batch officer was handpicked by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to head the state bureaucracy on June 28, 2018, two days before the incumbent Rajive Kumar was to retire.

Mr Pandey was to retire on February 28 but would now continue to be the Chief Secretary till August 31, a government statement said.

The extension was given to the top bureaucrat by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre by invoking the third proviso of rule 16(1) of the AIS (DRCB) Rules of 1958, after the state government recommended the extension citing thronging Kumbh, the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and the plea that any change at the top of the state's bludgeoning bureaucracy could affect administrative time at this crucial juncture.