Itanagar, Sep 17 (IANS): Senior IAS officer Manish Kumar Gupta on Monday took over as the new Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.

Gupta, a 1991-batch IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, succeeds Dharmendra, a 1989-batch IAS officer of the same cadre.

The new Arunachal Pradesh CS previously served as Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Home) in the Delhi government.

Soon after assuming the charge, Gupta held his first meeting with Principal Secretaries, Commissioners and Secretaries of various state government departments in the Civil Secretariat and exchanged views.

An official statement quoting the Chief Secretary said that Gupta sought support and cooperation from the senior officials and all concerned in achieving the target of making Arunachal Pradesh as one of the most developed states in India.

During the meeting, the new Chief Secretary sought details of various ongoing policies and programmes in the state, including key infrastructure projects, status of filling up of vacancies in government departments, departmental promotion committee, border issues, the statement added.

Gupta decided to hold separate meetings with each department to take stock of the ongoing projects and review their status in the next few weeks.

"He (new Chief Secretary) also decided to undertake district tours to assess ground realities of the ongoing projects and issues concerning the people," the statement said.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu welcomed the new Chief Secretary during the cabinet meeting on Monday.

"Extended a warm welcome to Shri Manish Kumar Gupta ji, the new Chief Secretary of Arunachal Pradesh, on his first Cabinet meeting today ! Wishing him a successful tenure and looking forward to working together to drive growth, development, and prosperity for the people of Arunachal Pradesh," the CM posted on X.