Senior IAS officer Atal Dulloo takes over as new Chief Secretary of J&K

Jammu, Dec 1 (PTI) Senior IAS officer Atal Dulloo on Friday took over as the new chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, and received a rousing reception from hundreds of civil secretariat employees here.

Dulloo succeeded Arun Kumar Mehta who retired at the end of November.

According to an order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dulloo, a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory Cadre, was appointed as the chief secretary on Wednesday.

On November 20, the central government repatriated Dulloo to his UT cadre after his brief tenure as the secretary of the Department of Border Management under the Home Ministry.

Large number of employees led by top IAS officers received Dulloo at the civil secretariat this morning and presented bouquets to him. He was then led to his office chamber.

Dulloo, a B.Tech graduate from Jammu and Kashmir, is a recipient of the state award for meritorious public service on Republic Day in 2013 and a silver medal for successfully conducting assembly elections in the erstwhile state in 1996.

Before his central deputation, Dulloo served as the financial commissioner of the Agriculture Production Department in J&K and additional chief secretary of the Finance Department. He is credited with the formulation of the prestigious Holistic Agriculture Development Program (HADP) and he played crucial role in expanding the medical infrastructure during the coronavirus pandemic as the financial commissioner of the Health Department.

He holds the distinction of being the first person from Jammu and Kashmir to occupy the top slot in the UT’s bureaucracy since 2017, following B R Sharma’s tenure from 2015-17.

Known for his cordial style of functioning, Dulloo also has experience in roles such as a sub-divisional magistrate in Ladakh and deputy commissioner in at least three districts in J&K.

The term of panchayats is also ending early next year but elections to these rural local bodies are likely to be delayed.