Warjri is next chief secretary

Shillong, June 27: Meghalaya additional chief secretary P. Barkos O. Warjri will take over from W.M.S. Pariat as the state’s new chief secretary on Monday.

Warjri, a 1978-batch IAS officer, is currently chairman, administrative reforms, and additional chief secretary in-charge of soil and water conservation department and other departments.

Earlier, he was appointed as the chairman and managing director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited.

In a notification issued by principal secretary (personnel department) R.V. Suchiang, Pariat will retire as chief secretary and state vigilance commissioner from Monday afternoon.

Pariat was one of the longest-serving chief secretaries in Meghalaya. He took over the mantle as chief of the Meghalaya bureaucracy on October 10, 2009, from Ranjan Chatterjee.

In December last year, when Pariat was to demit office, the government had extended his service by another six months.

“On assumption of charge as chief secretary to the government of Meghalaya, Warjri will also function as state vigilance commissioner with effect from the date of taking charge and until further orders,” the notification stated.

Warjri is due to retire from service in 2016. He had officiated the office of the chief secretary in crucial times like the conduct of the Assembly polls last year, and the district council and Lok Sabha elections this year.

A resident of Shillong, the chief secretary-designate graduated from St Edmund’s College, Shillong in 1976, and went on to study International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

He joined the IAS in 1978, and was allotted the Manipur-Tripura cadre where he served in Manipur in various capacities until 2008 leaving the state when he was principal secretary (home and planning).

In Manipur, he had held various posts in the departments of food and civil supplies, vigilance, taxes, industries, excise, youth affairs and sports, agriculture, urban development and others. He was also deputy commissioner of the Manipur border district of Chandel.

In between, he had also served as director of the North Eastern Council, and as director, vigilance, with ITI, under the Union ministry of communications, in Bangalore.

Under Warjri, there are two additional chief secretaries — B.K. Dev Barma and K.S. Kropha.