The newly appointed Chief Secretary, H Rajesh Prasad, reached Chandigarh here Tuesday. Prasad was presented with a guard of honour at the UT State Guest House, Sector 6, Chandigarh. Later, he paid a courtesy call on UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria at Punjab Raj Bhavan. Prasad will be in office on Wednesday morning . The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on October 4 had appointed Prasad, a 1995-batch IAS officer, as the Chandigarh chief secretary. He will succeed Rajeev Verma, who has been shifted as the Delhi chief secretary. Born on June 1, 1967, Prasad is an AGMUT-cadre officer who hails from Karnataka. He has been serving as the principal secretary of the power development department in Jammu and Kashmir since September 22, 2022. Jammu and Kashmir is now part of the joint AGMUT cadre that includes J-K and Ladakh. Prasad holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce and an LLB. He also holds dual MBA programmes in finance and public management from IGNOU and Pondicherry University, respectively. Prasad has held various posts during his tenure across Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Jammu and Kashmir. He has held key administrative roles, including district collector of South Delhi, commissioner for trade and taxes and urban development in Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi, principal secretary for education and urban development in Delhi, and principal secretary of the power development department in Jammu and Kashmir, among several other positions. Prasad succeeds Rajeev Verma Rajeev VermaVerma, a 1992-batch IAS officer, who was transferred as the chief secretary of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi on September 28. Verma had assumed charge on February 7, 2024, and did not complete his tenure in Chandigarh. Chandigarh had redesignated the designation of adviser to administrator as chief secretary last year.
