Vishwas Mehta to take over as chief secretary of Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The cabinet on Wednesday appointed additional chief secretary Vishwas Mehta as the next chief secretary of the state. He will be the state’s 46th chief secretary and will continue to hold the office till February 28, 2021.
Mehta, a 1986 batch IAS officer, will take over from Tom Jose, who will retire from service on May 31. At present, Mehta is additional chief secretary (home, vigilance, water resources and housing) and is also the chairman of coastal shipping and inland navigation corporation.
Talking to TOI, Mehta said that the biggest challenge that he finds as the chief secretary of the state in the present times is to maintain the achievements that the state has been able to make with regards to controlling the Covid-19 outbreak."We cannot afford to lose the strides that we have made in controlling the pandemic. We are a state of literate as well as rule-abiding citizens. So this achievement can be sustained only if it is made a people’s movement," he said.
Mehta also said that other than effectively fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, the state will also have to focus on rebuilding all that have been lost. "Reviving the economy as well as completing certain priority projects in the next six months will have to be done simultaneously," he said.
Mehta had served in the state in various other capacities, including as additional chief secretary (revenue), principal secretary (general administration), secretary (health and family welfare) and resident commissioner of Kerala House in New Delhi.
In the Centre, Mehta has held positions including joint secretary of ministry of health and family welfare, senior directing staff of National Defence College and director in the ministry of tourism and culture.
Mehta who began his career in the IAS as assistant collector under training in Kollam and later as sub-collector at Mananthavady in Wayanad, had served as the district collector of Wayanad as well. He had also been the district collector of Idukki for a brief period.
Hailing from Rajasthan, Mehta, after obtaining post-graduation from Geology, completed PhD from Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur. He also holds a diploma in management from Indira Gandhi Open University and has also completed certificate course in public administration from Syracuse University, New York. Before getting inducted to IAS, Mehta was selected for IPS in the 1985 batch along with the present state police chief Loknath Behera.