He was the head of the Special Task Force which had encountered sandalwood mafia and dacoit Veerappan in operation ‘cocoon’, in October 2004. He has served as the Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) – a post on which he was appointed after the naxalites had killed 75 CRPF men in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada in 2010. Within no time, he got the situation under control, and many naxalites were killed in various operations.
K Vijay Kumar, who has been appointed as an adviser to the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, is known for leading many anti-naxal and anti-terrorist operations. In fact, he has also served in Kashmir from 1998 to 2001, as the Inspector General (IG) of the Border Security Force (BSF), when the valley was infested with jihadis. Even at that time, his role was impressive in defusing the situation, through multiple counter insurgency ops.
Along with this, the Union Home Ministry also gave a green signal to the appointment of B V R Subramaniam, an IAS officer of 1987 batch, of Chhattisgarh cadre, as the Chief Secretary of the state. The appointments were done immediately after President’s rule was imposed, as a consequence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) breaking its alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which led to the fall of the state government.
Mr. Subramaniam replaced B B Vyas, who was on extension period of his service. Mr. Vyas was reportedly, a close aide of Governor N N Vohra, due to which service rules were specially relaxed to let him continue as the Chief Secretary, even after the age of 60 years, which was the earlier retirement age for the post. Even after retiring in November last year, his service was extended twice for a period of 3 months each, and he’d have retired in May this year.
Union Cabinet’s Appointments Committee presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi made both the appointments. Meanwhile, according to reports, a new governor would be appointed in the state very soon, as N N Vohra’s term ends in 4 days. Name of Retd Maj Gen G D Bakshi, is doing rounds. However, reliable sources say that the present governor would be replaced only after Amarnath Yatra, to ensure smooth implementation of security measures for the event.
