LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has appointed Industrial Development Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey the next chief secretary of the state here on Wednesday. Pandey will replace present incumbent Rajive Kumar who is retiring on June 30, 2018. The order effecting Pandey's appointment as state's bureaucratic head was released by CM secretariat after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening.
Pandey, a 1984 batch IAS officer, will continue to hold the charge of his present department of industry and infrastructure. The genesis of decision to appoint Pandey is believed to be CM's Tuesday confabulations with the top RSS and BJP brass in Delhi wherein Yogi was entrusted to lead the party into Lok Sabha elections next year. The CM was given a free hand to appoint the senior most Babu of his choice to get desired results in the election year as the general polls are just 11 months away. On the contrary, outgoing CS was sent by the centre to head UP bureaucracy and ensure speedy implementation of the central welfare schemes in the state.
While the outgoing Chief secretary Rajive Kumar, a bureaucrat with impeccable track record and hanging his boots on June 30, did not lobby for an extension and preferred a graceful exit, Pandey had been seen as the most potential replacement to him owing to his proximity to the CM especially after he played a major role in organising the first ever investors' summit of Yogi dispensation in February this year. The mega event had witnessed delegates from around the world and an investment of over Rs four lakh crore.
Now the major challenge for Pandey would be to see all those investment proposals taking shape on the ground. Pandey as Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, had also played a crucial role in seeing the ambitious crop loan waiver scheme of Yogi government through. However, Pandey has been appointed superseding around a dozen officers senior to him of 1982, 1983 and 1984 batches. An officer with a vast experience in different positions in the state as well as the Centre in different regimes, Pandey is considered to be a non-controversial and upright officer.