Chandigarh: The Bhagwant Mann led AAP government in Punjab has appointed senior IAS officer Anurag Verma as the new chief secretary, an official order issued on Monday said. Verma, a 1993 batch IAS officer is currently serving as additional chief secretary, home affairs and justice. He also holds additional charges of legal and legislative affairs, industries and commerce, information technology and investment promotion.
Verma succeeds V K Janjua who retires on June 30. According to the order issued to this effect by the Department of Personnel, Government of Punjab, Verma will take charge on July 1. Sources said that outgoing Chief Secretary of Punjab VK Janjua could be appointed as the Chairman of Punjab Lok Seva Sabha. Janjua was appointed as the Chief Secretary of Punjab on 5 July 2022.
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He was appointed in place of Anirudh Tiwari to the post. Significantly, Anurag Verma has superseded 1992 batch IAS officer KP Sinanha, 1990 batch IAS officer VK Singh besides Anrudh Tiwari, Vini Mahajan, Anjali Bhavra and Ravneet Kaur who were also considered to be in the race for the post of Punjab Chief Secretary.
As per today's order, Anirudh Tewari, lAS (1990); Anurag Agarwal, 1AS (1990); A. Venu Prasad, 1AS (1991); Seema Jain, 1AS (1991); Sarvjit Singh, 1AS (1992); Raji P. Shrivastava, 1AS (1992) and KAP Sinha, 1AS (1992) shall be designated as Special Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab. The charge of the posts falling vacant as a result of this order will be given later on, the order said.
