Curbing spread of virus, economic growth priority for new chief secretary

The senior bureaucrat and additional chief secretary (home), Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday took over as the new chief secretary of Maharashtra as the incumbent chief secretary

The senior bureaucrat and additional chief secretary (home), Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday took over as the new chief secretary of Maharashtra as the incumbent chief secretary Ajoy Mehta retired from the post, after serving for 14 months. Kumar, 1984 batch IAS officer, is likely to get eight months tenure as he is retiring in February 2021.

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Kumar said that along with initiatives and efforts to curb the spread of the Covid-19, initiatives will be taken to open up economic activities.

On being asked about leading the state in the middle of an unprecedented crisis, Kumar said, “I’m not the only officer, who is dealing with the disaster. There is a team working towards it. We have already done good work, and will consolidate whatever gains have been achieved in the last phase.’’

The senior-most IAS officer said that he cannot predict when Maharashtra will be able to come out of the financial crisis, but they are all working to ensure the state recovers as early as possible. “The entire bureaucracy and political leadership can together bring a change. We will continue to work to combat the virus and introduce new policies and initiatives.,” Kumar said.

In his career span of over 35 years, Kumar has worked as a collector of Beed, Osmanabad and Aurangabad district. He joined the services as assistant district collector in Amravati in 1985 and has worked as an officer on special duty at deputy chief minister’s office in 1997. He has also headed women and child development department and housing department as an additional chief secretary.

Meanwhile, the state government has appointed Ajoy Mehta as a principal advisor to the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.