category Regional, chandigarh , , tags Regional, chandigarh , , DW BUREAU Chandigarh The Punjab Goverment on Monday appointed Anurag Verma the next Chief Secretary of the State. Verma, a 1993-batch IAS officer, will be the 42nd incumbent to serve the prestigious post and succeeds Vijay Kumar Janjua, a 1989-batch officer, who retires on June 30. Verma is presently holding the charge of additional chief secretary, home affairs and justice and additional charges of legal and legislative affairs, industries and commerce, information technology and investment promotion. Hailing from Patiala in Punjab, Verma will take charge on July 1. He will also hold the charge of principal secretary, Department of Personnel and Vigilance. The officers in the Punjab cadre who are senior to Verma include Vini Mahajan (1987-batch officer), Ravneet Kaur (1988-batch officer), Anjali Bhawra (1988-batch) and VK Singh (1990-batch). Four of them were on Central deputation. Other IAS officers include Anirudh Tewari (1990-batch), Anurag Agarwal (1990-batch), A Venu Prasad (1991-batch), Sarvjit Singh (1992-batch), Raji P Shrivastava (1992-batch) and K A P Sinha (1992-batch). Mahajan and Tewari had earlier served as chief secretaries. Tewari, Agarwal, Prasad, Singh, Shrivastava and Sinha have been designated as special chief secretaries, as per the Punjab government order. Verma was born into a family of academicians in Patiala. His father served as the professor of chemistry and his mother as the English teacher. His native village is Chalela in Patiala district. A gold medalist from the Thapar College, Patiala, in electronics and communication engineering, Verma had bagged an overall seventh rank in the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 1993. He had served as deputy commissioner of Bathinda, Ludhiana and Jalandhar districts during the field posting. As special secretary of revenue, Verma took the initiative of computerisation of revenue land records and introduction of Fard Kendras in the state, said the statement. Assuring to discharge the responsibility assigned by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann with due diligence and devotion, Verma said implementation of people-friendly initiatives commenced by the state government at the grassroots will be his top priority, according to the statement. Verma said development of the state will be ensured and people s grievances would be resolved on a priority basis, the statement said. (editor dailyworld.in)