Anurag Verma assumes charge as chief secretary of Punjab

Chandigarh: A 1993-batch IAS officer, Anurag Verma, on Saturday took charge as 42nd Chief Secretary of the state in the presence of outgoing Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua and other senior civil officers. Born in a family of academicians from Patiala, Verma will also be the principal secretary personnel and vigilance in addition to his present assignment as chief secretary.

On the occasion, senior civil officers DK Tiwari, Kumar Rahul, Malwinder Singh Jaggi, Vipul Ujwal, Ramvir, Sonali Giri, Isha Kalia, Gauri Parasher Joshi, Puneet Goyal, Bhupinder Singh, Neeru Katyal Gupta, Sukhjeet Pal Singh were also present.

After assuring the charge, Verma said that under the guidance of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he will accord top priority to clean, efficient, responsive and transparent administration besides giving major thrust on health and education sectors along with all round development of the state. Verma said that Punjab, being a border state and food bowl of the country, assumes lot of significance for the entire country adding that with the support of all civil and police officers, he will make Punjab a front ranking state in the country.

The Chief Secretary said that major thrust will also be laid on implementing the state government citizen centric and development oriented policies with feedback from the ground level. He said that effort will be made to percolate the benefits of the pro-people policies at the ground level.