Rajiv succeeds R Sri Kumar, who demitted as Vigilance Commissioner on January 27.
The CVC, which exercises superintendence over CBI to oversee probe in corruption cases, is probing Commonwealth Games (CWG) related irregularities, monitoring probe in multi-crore coal blocks and second generation (2G) allocation scams.
"I will take forward CVC's effort to check corruption in the country. My emphasis will be on speeding up probe in corruption cases involving government officials and other public functionaries," Rajiv told PTI.
President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Rajiv as Vigilance Commissioner on the basis of recommendation of a three-member selection committee chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, official sources said.
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Rajiv, a former IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was administered the oath of office yesterday by Pradeep Kumar, Central Vigilance Commissioner. He joined the office yesterday afternoon.
Before joining the Commission, Rajiv served as Director General (DG) of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) from where he retired in October last year.
A Masters in Physics, he has also served as DG of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Civil Defence as well as Additional DG in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in Delhi.
A Vigilance Commissioner has a tenure of four years from the date on which he enters upon his office or till he attains the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier.
The three member probity watchdog -- CVC Pradeep Kumar, Vigilance Commissioners J M Garg and Rajiv -- is in its full strength now.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by CBI Director Ranjeet Sinha and Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) S K Sarkar, among others.