Ranchi : The Jharkhand government has appointed visually-impaired 2007 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Rajesh Singh as Deputy Commissioner of Bokaro.
He is the first visually-impaired Deputy Commissioner in the state. Earlier, he was a special secretary in the department of Higher and Technical Education.
While Singh is recognized as a capable and firebrand IAS officer, very few people know that Singh is also a good cricketer. He has represented the Indian cricket team thrice in the visually-impaired World Cup cricket championships.
A resident of Govindpur in Dhanrua, Patna, Singh thanked Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren for entrusting him with the responsibility of a district, saying the chief minister has made us proud and inspired society.
In an interview with IANS, Singh said his priority is to develop rural areas. He intends to help those who do not reach the top and are unable to speak for themselves.
On his stay in Patna and how it reflected on his work, he said, “I come from a rural background, too. The rural area in my district will be benefited. The sensitivity, experience and attachment to rural problems are reflected in my personality which will benefit the people of the villages here.”
Singh has represented India in the Cricket World Cup organized for the visually impaired. He represented India in the World Cup cricket competition in 1998, 2002 and 2006. His performance as a bowler was par excellence.
After his initial education at Model School in Dehradun, Singh move to Delhi and graduated from Delhi University and did his post-graduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He then passed the civil services examination in 2007.
Initially assigned to the Assam, Meghalaya cadre, he moved to the Jharkhand cadre in 2016. His first posting was in Ranchi as joint secretary in the Department of Women Child Development and Social Security.
Singh says he had fallen into a well in Patna when he was playing cricket as a child and lost his eyesight. However, he did not give up his childhood dream of becoming an IAS officer. He passed the civil services examination in 2007 after fighting a long-drawn legal battle to become the country’s first visually-impaired IAS officer.
Singh has also authored ‘Putting Eye in IAS’, a book depicting his struggle to be an IAS officer, which was released by former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in 2017. (IANS)