Shekhar Dutt takes oath as Guv of Chhattisgarh

     Raipur, January 23, 2010: Former IAS Officer and Deputy National Security Advisor Shekhar Dutt today took oath as the Governor of Chhattisgarh.

     Chief Justice of Chhattisgarh High Court Justice Rajeev Gupta administered oath to Dutt in a function at the Raj Bhawan and immediately after that the Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, his cabinet colleagues, including Brij Mohan Agrawal and Amar Agrawal, Speaker Dharam Lal Kaushik, lone Congress Lok Sabha MP Charan Das Mahant, Chief Secretary P Joy Oommen and several civil and police officials and journalists congratulated him.

     Later talking to media Dutt said he was coming to Chhattisgarh after about 22 years and in those years several things have changed and also there are development in this region.

     Raman government was doing a good job on the anti-naxal front and he would help for overall growth of the state, Dutt said.

     Dutt was appointed as the Governor on January 16, by President Pratibha Patil after transferring E S L Narasimhan to Andhra Pradesh as Governor for the remainder of his term.

     The new Governor is a career bureaucrat and is an IAS officer of the 1969 batch of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, who was even Commissioner of Raipur in 1987-88.

    He had also served in the Army and for his role in the Western Sector during 1971, Dutt was awarded Sena Medal for gallantry, officials said.

     Dutt had worked as the Deputy National Security Advisor after functioning as the Defence Secretary of the country.

     He was also the Secretary, Defence Production in the Ministry of Defence. Dutt has also served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Defence Production. During this period he was Director in the Board of Defence Public Sector Undertakings such as Bharat Electronics, Bharat Dynamics, Bharat Earth Movers, Mazagaon Docks, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers and Goa Shipyard.

     Earlier in the mid-80s he had served as Director (Navy) in the Ministry of Defence.

     In his long and distinguished career in the Indian Administrative service, Dutt held several key posts, which include Director General Sports Authority of India and Principal Secretary in the Department of Tribal and Scheduled Caste Welfare and Principal Secretary, Departments of School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare both in the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

     During his tenure in the Sports Authority of India, Dutt played a pivotal role in the successful conduct of the First Afro-Asian Games in November 2003.

     As the Principal Secretary, Tribal Welfare Dutt was instrumental in drawing up a number of schemes including special projects concerning area development, collection and marketing of minor forest produce and forest village development through joint forest management mechanism.

     Dutt also held the appointment of Secretary, Department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

     In his capacity as Principal Secretary in the Departments of School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, Dutt was credited with the introduction of an innovative programme called Education Guarantee Scheme in which the community panchayats owned and ran the schools. The scheme helped in universalizing elementary education in Madhya Pradesh to a great extent.