GUWAHATI, Oct 31 - History repeated itself when Jishnu Baruah took over as the Chief Secretary of the State this afternoon as his father was the Chief Secretary of Manipur and it is a rare event where both father and son became Chief Secretaries of neighbouring states. Talking to The Assam Tribune after taking over as the Chief Secretary, Baruah said that it was a proud moment for him to emulate his father. His father Dwijendra Nath Baruah was the Chief Secretary of Manipur from 1981 to 1987. DN Baruah was an IAS officer of UT cadre and later of Manipur-Tripura cadre. After his retirement, he also served as the Chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission from 1989 to 1993.
Jishnu Baruah is naturally elated to follow in his father�s footsteps and he said that seeing his father work, from his childhood, he had a dream of getting into the Indian Administrative Service. �It is a proud moment for my 79-year-old mother today. She had seen her husband working as the Chief Secretary of a state and today she has seen her son taking over as the Chief Secretary of Assam,� he pointed out. Baruah admitted that though he cherished his appointment as the Chief Secretary, at the same time, there is anxiety because of the challenges that come with the responsibility. He said that holding of peaceful elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) would be one of the first major tasks at hand for him. The elections to the Council are due in December.
Commenting on his other major goals, Baruah said that achieving the target of land patta distribution would be another major task in hand in the coming days. He said that timely implementation of the schemes announced by the government is always a challenge for any officer. He said that he would coordinate with all the departments to improve the functioning of the administration.
Baruah pointed out that a number of accords have been signed with different groups and timely implementation of the same would be another major goal for him. �I know new challenges will keep coming and we will have to deal with them,� he added.
The new Chief Secretary further said that as the elections to the State Assembly are due next year, ensuing peaceful election will be another challenge to be faced by the administration.
It may be mentioned here that Baruah, a 1988-batch IAS officer, took over charge as the Chief Secretary from Kumar Sanjay Krishna, who retired today.
