New Delhi : Senior IPS officer Archana Ramasundram on Monday was appointed Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). She the first woman to head a paramilitary force.
Ms.Ramasundram is currently Special Director, National Crime Records Bureau. She has been appointed to the post till the date of her superannuation September 30, next year, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.
58-year-old Ms.Ramasundram is the first woman police officer to have been appointed as the chief of a paramilitary force. The SSB is entrusted with guarding the country’s frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan.
There are five paramilitary forces– SSB, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force and Indo Tibetan Border Police– and none has ever had a woman chief.
The Tamil Nadu cadre officer was in news in 2014 over her appointment as Additional Director in the CBI. Her appointment was also challenged in the Supreme Court after which she was moved to the NCRB as its chief.
Besides her, IPS officers–K Durga Prasad and K K Sharma–have been appointed Director Generals of CRPF and BSF, respectively. They will take over after the incumbent chiefs of these forces retire at the end of this month.
@Agency news.
