Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) R.K .Singh, a Bihar cadre senior civil service officer posted in the defence ministry, was Friday named the new union home secretary, succeeding G.K. Pillai who retires at the end of this month.

Singh’s appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet that met here with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in chair.

“Singh will serve as officer on special duty in the ministry of home affairs in the rank and pay of secretary with immediate effect and till the date of his assumption of charge as home secretary,” an official statement said.

Singh, a 1975 batch IAS officer, is at present secretary, department of defence production, in the defence ministry.

Singh’s tenure as the home secretary is fixed for a period of two years from the date he takes over from Pillai, who superannuates June 30.

Singh had earlier served in the home ministry as a joint secretary for nearly five years. This coupled with his experience in the defence ministry helped him to score over two other shortlisted candidates — Punjab chief secretary S.C. Agarwal and Central Panchayati Raj Secretary A.N.P. Sinha — for the top post of security management in the country.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram had picked the three names from a list of 30 probables.

Pillai was also joint secretary (Northeast) 1996-2001.

According to sources, Singh met Manmohan Singh Wednesday after he was interviewed by Chidambaram last week.

Pillai was promoted as home secretary in June 2009 — seven months after the country witnessed one of the deadliest terror attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.

The home secretary’s job mainly deals with internal security management, including insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast, and Maoist violence in east and central India.

Pillai, a 1972 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer, was known to be a close lieutenant of Chidambaram who oversaw a complete overhaul of the country’s security establishment in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack.