Bengaluru, Jul 26: Shalini Rajneesh will be the new Chief Secretary of Karnataka, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said on Friday.

The 1989 batch IAS officer will succeed her husband and outgoing Chief Secretary Rajneesh Goel, who is scheduled to retire on July 31.

"The Cabinet had authorised the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to decide on the appointment of the new Chief Secretary. He has finalised the name of the now Additional Chief Secretary to government Shalini Rajneesh and informed the Cabinet today," Patil told reporters here.

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The first couple to hold the post in Karnataka were B K Bhattacharya and his wife Teresa Bhattacharya more than two decades ago.

Shalini Rajneesh was the woman topper of the 1989 IAS batch, according to official sources. A Ph.D. in Rural Development, she has penned several books covering various subjects like Management, Personality Development, and Women Empowerment.

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Srinagar (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday criticised his Bihar counterpart over the niqab incident and said that Nitish Kumar might be slowly revealing his true nature.

"Nitish Kumar, who was once considered a secular leader, may be slowly showing his true colours," Abdullah told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.

Abdullah said Kumar removing the face veil of a Muslim woman doctor was wrong and cannot be justified by any means.

"We have seen this kind of incident here several years ago. Have you forgotten how Mehbooba Mufti removed the burqa of a legitimate voter inside a polling station? That act was wrong, and this act (of Kumar) is also wrong.

"If the (Bihar) chief minister did not want to hand over the order to her (Muslim woman), they could have kept her aside. However, to humiliate her like this is totally wrong," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

Kumar stirred a huge controversy after he removed the face veil of a Muslim woman at a function earlier this week.