‘Upright, risk-taker, calm’: Days after ex-chief secy Rakesh Mehta’s death, colleagues remember him fondly

The death of former Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta, who died by suicide on September 6, has shaken politicians and bureaucrats. Mehta, a former IAS officer, who was said to have shared a close bond with late Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit, pioneered privatisation across several sectors.

The 1975-batch AGMUT cadre officer, Mehta served as the chief secretary from 2007 until his retirement in 2011. This was a crucial period, with the Assembly elections being held in 2008 and the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

In 2012, Mehta was appointed as the state election commissioner, responsible for conducting the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. He also served as the MCD commissioner from April 2002 to November 2005. “He was one of the most dynamic MCD commissioners … the conviction with which he worked, the changes he brought to MCD.

He played a key role in the establishment of the MCD Civic Centre. The land where it is built, was encroached. He ensured that was removed and the plan for the building took off, with him helming its execution. He ensured that the centre was sustainable, where it was generating revenue for MCD while also being an asset,” says Gupta.

“He also had a reputation as an upright officer and carried a lot of weight in courts. He was seen as a responsible officer. He would also come forward if an officer was hesitant to sign a file, and say: ‘Lao, mujhe do, main sign kar dunga (Give it to me, I will sign it).” “He was extremely soft-spoken and patient,” adds Gupta.

Mehta also played a significant role in shutting down the Idgah slaughterhouse, and ensuring that the Ghazipur slaughterhouse was up and running, as per directions issued by the Supreme Court. BJP MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely, who served in Dixit’s Cabinet from 2003 to 2013, including in the Transport department when Mehta was the Delhi Transport Corporation chairman, remembers him as a “fine officer, very innovative, open to new ideas”.

He says Mehta was always a step ahead, attempting digitisation in governance in the earlier years of the third millennium. “When he was chief secretary, he was responsible for converting DTC buses into CNG ones pursuant to court orders.

It was around a 5,000-bus fleet back then, which would otherwise run on diesel,” Lovely says, adding: “Mehta also introduced low-floor buses to Delhi’s fleet.” For retired IAS officer Ramesh Negi, who worked with Mehta while the latter was the MCD commissioner as well as the principal secretary, recalls that what stood out was how “hands-on”, “field-oriented”, “risk-taker” Mehta was.

Mehta’s initiatives and measures brought in a framework of efficiency, providing citizens with better services while also cutting down on wasteful spending, Negi adds. “Normally you’ve bureaucrats who are cautious and traditional in their methods.

He was visionary, always experimenting with new ideas. His ability to take risks was how he brought so many reforms,” says Negi. Negi, who was the MCD additional commissioner when Mehta was the commissioner, remembers that Mehta brought in IT service providers in the civic body’s citizen centres for facilitating records such as birth and death certificates, and property tax records.

“Bringing in private IT services helped cut the bureaucratic rigamarole, and made it smoother for the public to access these services with a deadline,” says Negi. Mehta also played a pivotal role in introducing the unit area method for calculating property tax and in privatisation of transport of solid waste.

“We also saw privatisation of DTC depots, 60 of them, during Mehta’s tenure … over time we reduced government expenditure by 40%,” Negi adds. Congress’s Haroon Yusuf, who held charge of the Power department in Dixit’s Cabinet from 2003 to 2008, recalls Mehta’s “proactive role” in laying the groundwork when electricity distribution was privatised in the Capital.

“Instead of asking juniors to prepare notes, he would prepare the whole Cabinet note himself. He never lost his calm,” he reminisces. Mehta was found dead at his residence in Noida, police said. According to officers, a purported suicide note was also found, where he mentioned “prolonged illness” as the reason behind the extreme step.

Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court Professional Profile Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express.

Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare).

Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others.

She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020. With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles: High-Profile Case Coverage She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its...