Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was given another one-year extension on Friday, his fourth in the post, till August 22, 2024, according to a Personnel Ministry order.

National

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was given another one-year extension on Friday, his fourth in the post, till August 22, 2024, according to a Personnel Ministry order. Mr. Bhalla, a 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, was appointed Home Secretary in August 2019.He will also be remembered as the home secretary with the most eventful of tenures. Appointed on August 22, 2019, just over a year before his retirement, Bhalla’s tenure started literally with a trial by fire. Only a fortnight prior, the Centre had scrapped Jammu & Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into two Union territories, throwing the region into turmoil.Bhalla had the onerous task of marshalling his resources, which included armed forces and central agencies, to ensure there was no violent uprising in the Valley. He not only managed the situation then, but four years down the line can also boast of having overseen a significant decline in terrorist violence and law and order incidents in Kashmir.


     

     

     

 

     


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