Panchkula: Gauri Parasher Joshi, a 2009 batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre posted as the new Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Panchkula. She is the wife of Chandigarh DC Ajit Balaji Joshi, a 2003 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre. Gauri will replace a 2010 batch IAS officer Garima Mittal, who was shifted as the Chief Executive of the Haryana Khadi Village Industries Board.
After working in Kalahandi (Odisha), known for acute poverty and illiteracy, and getting appreciation from both the administrative set-up and public at large for proper execution of various government programmes and policies at the ground level, during her two years of probation, Gauri had shifted to her home state Haryana.
Daughter of RN Parashar, who was the Chief Adviser of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Gauri did her schooling in Delhi. An alumnus of St Stephen’s College in Delhi, she also holds a diploma in mass communication from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi.
After doing her course in journalism, Gauri decided to become an IAS officer. She appeared in the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 2008 and cracked it with an All-India Rank of 60.
After marriage to Ajit Balaji Joshi, Gauri got a deputation from the Odisha cadre to Haryana. Recently, her deputation was extended for two more years till 2018.
She was currently posted as the Director (Tourism) in Haryana and was on maternity leave for the last few months after being blessed with a daughter.
Gauri will be the third DC of Panchkula in almost a year. Her predecessor Mittal served here for less than nine months after being posted on April 25, 2016. Earlier, Mandip Singh Brar had served for a short stint of four months.