The Punjab government has appointed IAS officer KAP Sinha as the new Chief Secretary, replacing Anurag Verma. A 1992-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, Sinha had been serving as the Special Chief Secretary in the Department of Revenue, Agriculture, and Water Conservation. This change marks a major development in the state’s bureaucratic leadership, as Sinha, already senior to Verma, takes over the top post.
The outgoing Chief Secretary Anurag Verma has been reassigned as the Additional Chief Secretary for Revenue, Rehabilitation, Disaster Management, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Horticulture, and Soil and Water Conservation.
It has been about 30 months since the Punjab government came to power. About 2 years ago, LAS VK Janjua of 1989 batch was posted on this post. When he retired, the responsibility of this post was handed over to Anurag Verma. He took over the responsibility of the post of Chief Secretary on 1st July 2023.
Who is KAP Sinha?
KAP Sinha, IAS, has served as the principle secretary to the Government of Punjab in the Department of Food Civil supplies and Consumer Affairs and Department of Parliamentary Affairs. He has now appointed as the 43rd Chief Secretary of Punjab.
Previously, in 2017, he held senior positions in Government of Punjab in the departments of General Administration, Environment, Science and Technology, Higher Education and Parliamentary Affairs.
He has also served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Commerce & Industry.
He has been heading several delegations to foreign countries to finalise negotiations from the Indian side. As the joint secretary to GOI, in the department of Atomic Energy, he was the India representative to European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) at Geneva, Switzerland. He has been closely associated in the development of the Higher Education sector.
He has served on the Board of Institute of Nano Sciences and Technology Mohall, Board and Council of National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) and Institute of Physics (IOP) both located at Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. In addition, he has served as the ex-officio Director of the Board of Electronics Corporation of India Ltd at Hyderabad, expert member on the council of Atomic Mineral Directorate at Hyderabad and Controller of National Institution "Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) at District Jhajhar in Haryana.
Prior to his deputation to Government of India, he has served as Secretary of the then Punjab State Electricity Board at Patiala. Joint Secretary Finance in Union Territory of Chandigarh. Deputy Commissioner of two districts viz. Bathinda and Gurdaspur in Punjab.
He has visited multiple countries including Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangla Desh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Hong Kong, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Egypt, Morocco, etc.
Source: prsc.gov.in