Bhubaneswar: Manoj Ahuja, a 1990-Batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre, took charge today as the Chief Secretary from outgoing Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena at Lok Seva Bhavan here.

The new Chief Secretary arrived in Bhubaneswar earlier in the day. He would be the first chief secretary of new BJP government in Odisha led by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

Both Ahuja and Jena discussed for a while and exchanged their views with each other.

Senior officials and staff of Lok Seva Bhavan welcomed the new chief secretary and bade farewell to the outgoing chief secretary.

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Worth mentioning, Pradeep Jena’s term, following six-month extension, ended on June 30.

After handing over the charge, Jena tweeted, “I relinquished charge of @SecyChief today at 3.30 PM. I welcome Manoj Ahuja one of my good friends from 1990 Batch (from my Kalahandi days) my successor Sub-Collector Dharamgarh and l am happy to have been succeeded by him today to hold the post of @SecyChief. Wish him all the best.”

Previously, in a post on his personal ‘X’ handle, Jena expressed that he had lots of limitations in replying to each one of Odisha. Unlike many others, he never had engaged an assistant or an agency to reply to all the tweets. He was doing everything himself. Hence, he could not reply to many.

“Wherever system supported or cd b stretched I have tried my level best 2solve d problem. I’m sorry if I cdnt come up 2d levels of expectations of some of u. Outside the govt I will try 2b 1 with u 2 facilitate solutions 2 some of d problems ppl will face. Pl count me in,” Jena further said in another post.

Jena also stated that some expectations were beyond his power. Sometimes people think a chief secy can do everything, but it is not true. He was bound by limitations of systems, processes & procedures, and rules & regulations. Even if wanted to help in some cases, he could not do so at times.