Anil Goswami takes charge as new home secretary

Senior IAS officer Anil Goswami, a seasoned hand on Jammu and Kashmir affairs, today took charge as the new Union home secretary.

Senior IAS officer Anil Goswami, a seasoned hand on Jammu and Kashmir affairs, on Sunday took charge as the new Union home secretary.

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58-year-old Goswami, a 1978 batch IAS officer, is the first bureaucrat from Jammu and Kashmir to rise to the post of Union home secretary and will have a two-year tenure.

He took charge from incumbent RK Singh, who retired on Sunday. A resident of Jammu, Goswami was appointed as officer on special duty on April 26, prior to his taking over as Union home secretary.

The name of Goswami was cleared by the appointments committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Goswami, who will have a fixed tenure of two years till June 2015, had served Jammu and Kashmir as well as central governments in different capacities, including as special secretary in the home ministry.

He was divisional commissioner of Jammu and the first chief executive of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board after it was taken over by the government in early 1990s.

He also headed crucial departments of Home and Revenue in the state besides functioning as principal secretary to the then chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Goswami will have a packed schedule with the country gearing up for the general elections scheduled early next year.

However, more urgently he will be overseeing the massive relief and rescue operations in calamity-hit Uttarakhand.