Ranchi, July 27: On his first day at office today, Governor Kateekal Sankaranarayanan began business in the style of a chief executive officer of the state.

Sankaranarayanan headed straight to the state secretariat at 10.40am and stayed there for around three hours, holding meetings with the top brass.

His predecessor Syed Sibtey Razi had attended office at the secretariat half a dozen times during his six-month tenure under the President’s rule that began from January 19.

Today, Sankaranarayanan held one-to-one meetings with chief secretary A.K. Basu, development commissioner S.K. Chaudhary, director-general of police V.D. Ram, home secretary J.B. Tubid and the secretaries of building construction, energy, finance and personnel departments. He also discussed the power scenario with Jharkhand State Electricity Board chairman A.K. Chugh.

The meetings were brief and lasted for 10 to 20 minutes. According to sources, the new governor had made it clear that total transparency and administrative acumen will be the hallmark of the government under him.

Sankaranarayanan later held a meeting with his three advisers — G. Krishnan, Sunila Basant and T.P. Sinha. According to a Raj Bhavan spokesman, he has called a meeting with all the secretaries and other heads of departments tomorrow.

On Wednesday, Sankaranarayanan will meet the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to get feedback about the districts. “The governor will announce his plan of action after all these meetings. You will see the difference in a week’s time,” said one of his advisers. “He has given enough signals that he wants to focus on four areas of rural development, power, law and order and public distribution system,” a senior IAS officer added.

Significantly, all state officials were present and arrived at work on time after Sankaranarayanan’s declared that he would work from the secretariat.

However, the police headquarters “over reacted” and deployed Jharkhand Jaguar personnel, raised to launch anti-Naxalite operation, to guard the secretariat. C. D’cruz, DSP (cabinet secretariat), said: “The Jharkhand Jaguar jawans were deployed for today only as we had expected a huge rush during the governor’s arrival.”