Pulok Chatterji


Pulok Chatterji is an Indian civil servant who served as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, from 2011 to 2014. He formerly served as Executive Director to the World Bank and Joint Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office from 2004 to 2009.
He is a 1974 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from Uttar Pradesh cadre.

Early life and education

His late father had been Chairman of United Commercial Bank. He is an alumnus of St. Stephen's College, Delhi.

Career

By 1981, he was aged 32 and Collector of Sultanpur in UP. He moved to the PMO as Deputy Secretary when Rajiv Gandhi took over as PM in 1985. He worked at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and as Officer on Special Duty to Sonia Gandhi.
In 2004, when United Progressive Alliance came to power, he returned to PMO serving as Joint Secretary to Government of India before being promoted as Secretary to Government of India.
In 2012, he was awarded the C.F. Andrews Distinguished Alumni Award by the St. Stephen's College, Delhi.

Controversies and allegations

File notings available with India Today show that Pulok Chatterji, a senior official in the PMO in 2007-08, was fully aware of A. Raja's dubious decision-making in 2G spectrum case. In this note, Chatterji basically agrees that spectrum can be allotted on payment of normal fees -- the existing usual fee of Rs 1,658 crore -- which is what the nine licensees forked out for a pan-Indian footprint.
As Joint Secretary in the PMO, Chatterji wrote a note on 3 December 2004, favouring Kalmadi's appointment citing the host city contract and precedent of the 1982 Asian Games. Chatterji's note said Kalmadi should head the OC, but recommended caveats to address concerns raised by then sports minister Sunil Dutt.
In 2013, several reports state that he was responsible for tampering of the CBI coalgate report.