Bhopal: The IAS officer of 1989 batch Anurag Jain, who had served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during PM Narendra Modi’s first tenure in the office, has been made the new chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh government.An official notification to the effect was issued here late on Monday night after he was relieved of his charge as secretary, Union road transport ministry. He is the senior most IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre currently.Mr Jain, an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur, met chief minister Mohan Yadav here on Tuesday after he arrived here from Delhi. He is going to assume charge as 35th chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh on October three, official sources said. The outgoing chief secretary Veera Rana retired on September 30. With Mr Jain’s appointment in the coveted post, the month-long suspense over the new chief secretary of the state ended but with a high drama on Monday. Speculations have been flying thick and fast in the power corridor here since last one month about the new chief secretary with the name of senior IAS officer Rajesh Rajora (1990 batch) also making rounds along with Mr Jain for the post. In fact, a photograph showing Mr Rajora presenting a bouquet to the chief minister was in circulation in different WhatsApp groups here giving rise to speculations that he is going to be appointed the new chief secretary. The suspense ended when Mr Jain’s name was confirmed by the power corridor here late on Monday evening hours before the official notification was issued. Mr Jain did his B Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT- Kharagpur in 1986 and cracked the UPSC exam in 1988. He also did his MP in Public Administration from the Maxwell University in USA. A native of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, he was also a sportsman of national repute. He has won 11 national awards in Tennis and represented Madhya Pradesh in senior level cricket. He was appointed as joint secretary in the PMO in 2015. He was made joint secretary, finance ministry, during the implementation of Jan Dhan Yojana and was included in the PM team after successful implementation of the scheme. He had been on Central deputation since March, 2020. He was secretary to former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and was finance secretary in the Kamal Nath government.
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