New Delhi, Jan. 21 :    New Delhi, Jan. 21:  Chokila Iyer's appointment as foreign secretary was aimed at stemming dissatisfaction in the ministry. But it appears to have given rise to a new problem, choking the movement of senior diplomats at the top. Iyer is India's first woman diplomat to get the top job in the elite service. Having lost the race for the chair as a result of the government's politically correct move, several senior diplomats are reluctant to leave their present posts and take up new assignments. Senior diplomats in several key missions like France, London, Berlin and Geneva are averse to moving out, creating a bottleneck in the ministry's flow of appointments. One such diplomat is Kanwal Sibal, ambassador to France. Sibal was one of the hot favourites to replace Lalit Mansingh as foreign secretary. But after Iyer's appointment, Sibal has shown little interest in returning to Delhi. The ambassador was to come to South Block and take over from secretary (east) K.V. Rajen on his retirement in March and wait his turn for the foreign secretary's chair. But Sibal has made it clear that he was in no mood to return and preferred to be in Paris where his tenure is not yet over. This has put paid to Savitri Kunnadi's relocation plans from Geneva to Paris. Kunnadi, heading the Indian Permanent Mission in Geneva, was slated to take over as ambassador in France. As a sop, she was offered a posting at The Hague, which she promptly turned down. Kunnadi has decided to bide her time in Geneva till something more promising comes her way. Though Mansingh will be going to Washington as India's ambassador soon after retirement, another former foreign secretary, K. Raghunath, has not been so lucky. Raghunath was Berlin-bound to take over from Ronen Sen, who, in turn, was to go to London as the high commissioner. But the flow has been broken as Nareshwar Dayal, the incumbent in London, has managed to get an extension and will not vacate the post till the end of the year. The chain-reaction set off by Iyer's appointment has also made R.S. Kalha, secretary (west), change his mind about going to Canada as India's ambassador. He has more than a year in the service, but indications are that he will continue in the headquarters rather than take up his post in Ottawa. Satish Chandra, another senior diplomat who retires in the middle of next year, has decided to stay on as secretary in the National Security Council. But the decision to grant extensions to senior diplomats are taken arbitrarily. While Dayal has been given two extensions to stay on in London till the end of the year, other senior diplomats have been turned down. Rajen, secretary (east), and S.T. Deware, secretary (economic relations), will be retiring within a few months and neither has been given extensions.