Putting an end to all speculations, the State Government on Thursday chose 1983 batch IAS officer Rajbala Verma to take charge of Chief Secretary’s post. Verma will replace Rajiv Gauba who is leaving for Delhi to take charge of Secretary, Urban Development, Government of India.
A notification issued by the Personal department stated that Verma, Additional Chief Secretary, Road Construction Department, has been transferred and posted as the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand till further orders. Another notification issued by the department relieved CS Rajiv Gauba from his post with effect from afternoon of March 31 so that he can join his new assignment in Delhi from April 1.
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary of Planning and Finance department Amit Khare has been promoted to the CS rank and posted as the new Development Commissioner of the State. Khare will hold additional charge of Planning cum Finance dept till further orders.
In the wake of retirement of Personnel department secretary Ratan Kumar, the State Government transferred and posted Commercial Taxes department Secretary Nidhi Khare as the new Secretary of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha department. She will hold additional charge of Secretary of the Transport department.
Divisional Commissioner, Ranchi, KK Khandelwal has been made the new Secretary of Commercial Taxes department, while Examination Controller of Jharkhand Combined Examination Council Pradeep Kumar has been transferred and posted as the new Divisional Commissioner of Ranchi.
Additional Chief Secretary, Mines and Geology and Industries department, Uday Pratap Singh will hold additional Charge of Resident Commissioner of Jharkhand Bhawan, Delhi with effect from September 14, 2015.
After taking charge, Verma said she will ensure that the mission of CM Raghubar Das to make the benefits of development reach the last man of society would be her first priority. “Every department of Government has a mandate and I expect that all departments work as per their mandate,” she added.
Talking to The Pioneer, Verma said all sectors of Government work would be in her priority. “I had a meeting with all secretaries today and have asked them to prepare a brief status of works as well as the roadmap of their department. I have told them to include indicators in their reports so that we can understand where are we and where do we want to reach. We will again hold a meeting in 3-4 days,” she said, adding that the focus of the Government will be on sectoral development.
Verma also met DGP DK Pandey on Thursday and said that crime control and ensuring law and order in the city would be among her top priorities. Trained under former Union Home Secretary RK Singh in Patna, Verma got her first posting as SDM of Begusarai in undivided Bihar. later, she became the ADM of Dhanbad, DM of Muzaffarpur and Patna before Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar as a separate State. In Jharkhand, Verma held various posts of the Government, including Home, Food and Civil Supplies, Road Construction and Building Construction.