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Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police get new chiefs

August 31, 2021
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Sanjay Arora took over as ITBP on Tuesday while Pankaj Kumar Singh took over as Director General of BSF

New Delhi:

1988-batch IPS officer Pankaj Kumar Singh took over as the new Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force on Tuesday, while his batch mate Sanjay Arora took over as the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Mr Singh, from the Rajasthan cadre of the IPS, serves as the Special Director General of the country’s largest Border Security Force, which borders more than 6,300 km of Indian border with Pakistan and Bangladesh and has around 2.65 lakh personnel.

His father and retired IPS officer of 1959 batch, Parkash Singh also led as Director General of BSF from June 1993 to January 1994.

Mr Singh’s batch-mate and Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer, Arora took charge of the ITBP, which guards the 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

Shri Singh is considered as the architect of police reforms in the country. He petitioned the Supreme Court to reform the police establishment in 1996, after which the government began giving a fixed tenure of at least two years to the Intelligence Bureau chief, the CBI, the foreign secretary, the RAW chief and the Sangh. home Secretary.

This is also the first time that a son has succeeded his father at the top DG rank in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs).

In 2010, the 1973 batch IPS officer and real brothers- Vikram Srivastava and Raman Srivastava- served as the Director General of CRPF and BSF respectively.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on August 25 issued an order appointing Mr Singh as the new Director General of BSF.

The officer has done LLB, M.Phil and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and his retirement is scheduled in December next year.

He has served in the Rajasthan Police as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), during which he uncovered an infamous sex scandal that shook Jammu and Kashmir, besides solving several corruption-related cases.

A serving minister, several high-profile bureaucrats and individuals were arrested in the politically sensitive sex scandal in Jammu and Kashmir.

He led the Eastern Command of BSF Headquarters in Kolkata as Additional Director General and as Inspector General of CRPF’s Anti-Maoist Operations in Chhattisgarh.

Mr Arora, who was till now serving as Special Director General in the CRPF, will lead the nearly 90,000 personnel strong mountain-warfare trained ITBP.

He will retire from service in July, 2025.

He has previously served in the ITBP as a Commandant between 1997-2002 during which he headed the Battalion at Matauli and also served in the Training Wing of the Officers’ Training Academy at Mussoorie.

Both the new DGs took over from 1984 batch IPS officer SS Deswal, who retired on Tuesday. Shri Deswal was holding the additional charge of DG, BSF.

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