New Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi assumed office on Monday on superannuation of outgoing Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati.
Padhi took over the charge from Pati in the office chamber of the Chief Secretary in the presence of Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan, Principal Secretary Home Asit Kumar Tripathy, Principal Secretary Industries Sanjeeb Chopra, Principal Secretary law Bibhu Prasad Routray, Secretary Panchayati Raj DK Singh and other senior officers.
Replying to media queries after taking over the charge, Padhi said, “The new Government while taking over charge in 2014 have already specified the priority fields of action. I will follow up all those priority areas.”
He further said the prevailing drought situation is the immediate issue. Final reports on the drought would be submitted to the Government of India just after receipt of crop cutting reports from different areas of the State.
Rural housing, education, health irrigation, bringing in more investment to the State, speedy implementation of the infrastructural projects, etc., are also the priority areas of the Government, he said.
In response to a query on employment to youths, Padhi said the Government in 2014 had announced to provide jobs to 50,000 persons in the Government sector. That process is on. So far, around 31,000 youths have been engaged in various Government departments. Another four to eight thousand youths would be employed within next four to five months.
With an expeditious implementation of the investment projects, more employment opportunities would also be created for youths, Padhi added.