Additional Chief Secretary and Industrial Development Commissioner (IDC) Anup Chandra Pandey took over as the new Chief Secretary of UP on Saturday.  The 1984 batch officer, who will retire in August, 2019, succeeds Rajiv Kumar, who attained superannuation on Saturday. Admitting the challenge of taking state on the path of development, Pandey, after assuming office, said in lucknow that the state was moving ahead in attracting huge investments for industrial development. “The priority of the state government will remain as per Sankalp Patra of the BJP issued ahead  of 2017 Assembly elections. I have picked up the baton from outgoing Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar and we will take forward the government’s flagship programmes,’’ said Pandey. The top bureaucrat said, “We have a plan and strategy to make the state one of the developed states in the country. Though resources are a constraint, we will have to devise a strategy to overcome the hurdle. The government was committed to giving more facilities to farmers, youths and poor while the bureaucracy will work as a team to serve the state.” Formal orders for Pandey’s appointment as Chief Secretary were issued on Wednesday but it came into effect from the day of his joining on Saturday. Pandey has superseded 14 senior IAS officers of the UP cadre, in which several were still posted in the Secretariat and could be working under a junior colleague. There were over a dozen IAS officers who were in the race for the coveted post but the Chief Minister was keen on Pandey’s appointment. Pandey has spent a long time in UP, working on various levels and has a clean image and impeccable record. He was Director of Information department during Kalyan Singh’s regime in 1999 and later served as Private Secretary to Uma Bharti, who was Union minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Pandey is credited for successful implementation of three flagship programmes of the Yogi government.