Raval Hamendra Kumar Posted as Director, Water Resources Department

Raval Hamendra Kumar has been appointed Director in the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Delhi, under the Central Staffing Scheme for a period of five years. He is a 2011-batch IAS officer of the Tripura cadre, according to the appointment order, and takes up the posting alongside another newly appointed Director in the same department.

Kumar joins the department alongside fellow Director-level appointee Sahil Goyal, adding an IAS officer with state-cadre field administration experience to a department that also draws officers from specialised central services. Directors in the department typically split responsibility across specific river basins, scheme components or state coordination portfolios within the broader Namami Gange and water resources mandate, with individual charge allocations decided internally once officers formally take over their posts.

Kumar was relieved from his charges in Tripura before this central posting, consistent with the standard process for state-cadre officers moving to a central deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme. Tripura's cadre, though smaller than larger states', regularly sends officers to central ministries once they cross roughly a decade of service, the seniority threshold typically required for Director-level central postings, and officers from smaller cadres often value central deputation as a way to broaden their administrative exposure beyond a single state's scale.

As a Tripura-cadre officer, Kumar's prior service would have included district administrative charges within the state, which include the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and district-level roles common to smaller state cadres, before his move to central deputation. This background in direct field administration is distinct from, and complements, the audit and finance-oriented experience of some other officers recently posted to the same department, giving the Director-level team a mix of financial oversight and grassroots implementation experience.

The five-year tenure places Kumar in a department managing an extensive, multi-state river-cleaning and water infrastructure programme, with the specific allocation of his responsibilities — whether tied to particular states, river stretches or thematic areas such as groundwater regulation — to be determined by the department's internal charge distribution after he takes over. The department periodically reassigns internal charges among its Directors as project phases progress and priorities shift.

His appointment adds to the department's Director-level team as it continues to monitor sewage treatment infrastructure construction and river rejuvenation targets across the Ganga basin states, alongside separate mandates covering groundwater policy and river interlinking studies. The department's coordination role becomes particularly active during the monsoon months, when river flow data and flood management concerns intersect with its regular infrastructure monitoring work.

The appointment was made under the Central Staffing Scheme for a five-year tenure, according to the order issued for the posting. Kumar's appointment, alongside Goyal's, brings the department's most recent round of Director-level additions to a close for this cycle of central postings.