By IANS,
New Delhi: Raj Kumar Singh Thursday took over as the new union home secretary amid internal security challenges, Maoist violence and terror threats emanating from Pakistan, facing the country.
Singh succeeds Gopal Krishna Pillai who completed his two-year tenure Wednesday.
Soon after taking over, the new home secretary told reporters that the ongoing initiatives taken by the home ministry to meet the challenges facing the nation would be further strengthened.
“The country has the resilience to meet these challenges,” he said.
Singh is a Bihar-cadre Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1975 batch. His appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week.
He will have a fixed two-year tenure.
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.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram had picked the three names from a list of 30.
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.