Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government on Monday gave additional charge of chief secretary to senior IAS officer Kamlesh Kumar Pant who is currently the additional chief secretary cum financial commissioner.Pant will also retain charge of additional chief secretary (Revenue, Forest, Home and Vigilance) and chairman of the state pollution board, a notification issued here said.Also read: Retired IAS officer Dhanendra Kumar who worked with World Bank dies in AC blast at South Delhi home: How to prevent such blasts, 10 simple safety tipsThe post of chief secretary became vacant following the superannuation of Sanjay Gupta who was given the additional charge of CS on October 1, 2025 and elevated as regular CS on May 26, 2026, five days before his retirement.Pant, a 1993 batch IAS officer, is a BTech graduate from the IIT-Kanpur.He has earlier served as chairperson of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) in New Delhi (2021-2024). He also served as chief vigilance officer (CVO) at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and as Joint Secretary (Defence Production).