Senior IAS officer Manoj Pant has recently been mandated by the Government of West Bengal to succeed IAS Bhagwati Prasad Gopalika as the new Chief Secretary of West Bengal. Officer Gopalika’s (1989 batch) tenure came to an end on August 31st. It is pertinent to mention that Officer Pant’s (1991-batch IAS officer) appointment as the Chief Secretary came less than 24 hours after he was handed over the responsibility of the Irrigation and Waterways Department. Earlier, he served as the state’s Finance Secretary.
During his early days in the bureaucracy, Dr. Pant worked as the district magistrate of Murshidabad and North 24-Parganas before he worked as the private secretary of the then Union finance minister and later the President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, between 2009 and 2011.
Officer Pant has also worked as a senior adviser in the World Bank for three years between 2011 and 2014 and used to look after the affairs of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka. Apart from being an efficient administrator, Officer Pant has a good knowledge of political and economic activities in this part of the world. It is pertinent to mention that when IAS Pant was empanelled for appointment to the rank of secretary in the government of India, the state government did not release him.
