Chandigarh: The Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday appointed Vijay Kumar Janjua as Chief Secretary in place of Anirudh Tewari. Janjua is a 1989 batch IAS officer and is currently holding the position of Special Chief Secretary Jails and in addition Special Chief Secretary Elections.

After completing B Tech in Electronics from the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, Janjua worked for one year at SCL, Mohali, then a Government of India enterprise designing computer chips for space agencies. He also worked as an ITS Engineer with the Government of India for two and a half years.

Janjua worked in various departments of Punjab including Rural Development, Industries, Labour, Animal Husbandry etc. He also served in the Government of India for three years as Director Industries in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion. During tenure as Deputy Commissioner of Fatehgarh Sahib, he developed a PRISM software with the help of NIC and introduced computerized registration of properties for the first time in Punjab.

He was also instrumental in carrying out several reforms in Labour laws for improving the ease of doing business in Punjab besides improving the investment climate in the state. Likewise, he also initiated several path-breaking initiatives in the Revenue Department as Financial Commissioner Revenue. /BI/