New Delhi, May 25 (IANS): The government has initiated the process to select chiefs for the country's top intelligence agencies - the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), security sources said.

The government does not seem to be in the mood to give further extension to the present IB and R&AW chiefs, they said.

The tenure of current IB chief Arvind Kumar will come to an end by this month while R&AW chief Samanta Goel will be retiring on June 30.

Both Kumar and Goel were given a one year extension in May last year, beyond their scheduled service tenure.

The sources also said that the government, most likely, is willing to give command to the senior-most officers of the IB and the R&AW, while appointing IPS officers from outside the organisations will be the last option.

As per the sources, the frontrunner for the post of IB chief is 1987 batch Bihar cadre IPS officer A.S. Rajan, who is currently serving as its number two. Rajan has served as Deputy Director and Joint Director in Gujarat and is rated highly by the government.

Tapan Deka, a 1988 batch officer from Himachal Pradesh cadre, is also the in the race for the top IB post. He is at present working as Special Director and also is in charge of counter-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said that present CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal is also being considered for the R&AW. He was head of R&AW's Mumbai station in 2008 when the terror attack took place and served a considerable time in the agency.

It is also learnt that CRPF DG Kuldeep Singh, who is holding additional charge of the National Investigation Agency, could be its next chief.

The government is also searching for the new Director General of the Sashashtra Seema Bal which as of now under the dual charge of ITBP DG Sanjay Arora.