Anirudh Tewari replaces Mahajan as state chief secy
The 1990-batch IAS officer superseded six officers; move comes 3 days after Channi took oath as new Punjab CM
CHANDIGARH: IAS officer Anirudh Tewari took over as the new chief secretary of Punjab on Thursday.
The 1990-batch IAS officer has replaced Vini Mahajan after the change of political guard in the state. His appointment as head of the state bureaucracy came three days after Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi took oath as the new chief minister and started a rejig to give a new look to the administrative and police setups. More changes are expected in the days to come.
Tewari is an articulate and efficient officer with domain knowledge in finance, power and agriculture gained during a host of key positions held in central and state governments over the past 31 years. He has also been given the charge of principal secretary, personnel and vigilance, in addition to his present duties that include financial commissioner, development, principal secretary, food processing, governance reforms and public grievances, reads the order.
In replacing Mahajan, Tewari has superseded six IAS officers, including Arun Goel, Ravneet Kaur, Sanjay Kumar, Anjali Bhawra, Vijay Kumar Janjua and Kripa Shankar Saroj. Goel and Bhawra are on central deputation. Following the orders, Mahajan, Ravneet, Kumar, Janjua and Saroj have been designated as special chief secretaries with immediate effect. Ravneet Kaur, a 1988-batch officer, was also a frontrunner for the top position.
The posting orders of Mahajan will be issued later. She was the first woman chief secretary of Punjab and had superseded several officers senior to her at the time of her appointment in June 2020.
Tewari has held key positions in successive governments. Before being posted as principal secretary, development, he was principal secretary, finance, in the Capt Amarinder Singh government. Prior to that, he headed the industries and commerce, power and new and renewable energy departments as principal secretary, besides being the chief executive officer, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion (Invest Punjab).
He was the country coordinator of IFAD India from October 2006 to April 2009 and was director, fund bank and foreign trade, in the department of economic affairs, Union ministry of finance, for three years. He had a three-year stint as deputy commissioner, Sangrur, earlier.
Tewari, who belongs to Patiala, did his schooling from Yadavindra Public School, BE (Electronics & Electrical Communications) from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, in 1987 and MA (Economics) from Panjab University, Chandigarh, in 2002. He also has a post-graduate degree in international development policy with specialization in development management and governance. Tewari will have more than five-and-ahalf years as the chief secretary if he continues in the office till his superannuation in April 2027. Meanwhile, Varun Roojam has been appointed special principal secretary to deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. He is a 2004 batch IAS officer.
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