New Delhi, July 16: Prashant Kumar Singh, a seasoned bureaucrat and the Chief Secretary of Manipur, has been appointed as the Secretary of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. This development comes six months after he was assigned to the conflict-ridden state from his previous responsibilities at the Centre. Singh, an IAS officer from the 1993 batch belonging to the Manipur cadre, was initially serving as the Secretary of New and Renewable Energy. He was brought back to Manipur on January 11. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has sanctioned Singh's transition to the role of Secretary at the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, an assignment that holds the rank and remuneration equivalent to that of a Secretary to the Government of India, as per a Personnel Ministry order dated July 15. He is stepping into the shoes of Puneet Kumar Goel, a 1991 batch IAS officer. Singh's deployment to Manipur occurred in January following the assignment of the then Manipur Chief Secretary, Vineet Joshi, who was appointed as the Union Higher Education Secretary on December 25, 2024. Since May 2023, Manipur has been grappling with frequent ethnic conflicts, particularly between the Meitei and Kuki communities. These clashes have tragically claimed more than 260 lives and displaced thousands, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region.
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