Archana Ramasundram 1st woman IPS officer to head paramilitary force

A Tamil Nadu-cadre IPS officer, Archana Ramasundram, on Monday became the first woman police officer to lead a central police force that guards the country’s borders.

A Tamil Nadu-cadre IPS officer, Archana Ramasundram, on Monday became the first woman police officer to lead a central police force that guards the country’s borders.

A Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer Archana Ramasundram on Monday became the first woman police officer named to head a paramilitary force as part of changes in the security establishment.(Photo courtesy: Facebook)

Ramasundram, who is the director of the National Crime Records Bureau, was appointed director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which is deployed along India’s border with Nepal and Bhutan.

The 1980-batch officer is the first to head any central police force and would continue in this post till September 201, reveals an order issued by the appointments committee of the cabinet on Monday.

Earlier, her appointment as additional director of the CBI was mired in controversy because she joined the agency without formally getting relieved from her parent cadre, Tamil Nadu.

Subsequently, her assignment was challenged in the Supreme Court, which restrained her from discharging duties in the agency. Later, she was appointed head of the National Crime Records Bureau.

As part of changes in the security establishment, the Narendra Modi government also named the former chief of the Special Protection Group, K Durga Prasad, as director general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

A Telangana-cadre IPS officer of the 1981 batch, Prasad was the special director general of the CRPF after being moved out of the SPG to make space for a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer.

Prasad, who had set up the CRPF’s anti-Maoist commando unit, CoBRA, will take over as CRPF director general later this month.

KK Sharma, a Rajasthan-cadre IPS officer of the 1982 batch, will head the Border Security Force, which guards the border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Sharma, who was an additional director general in the BSF, will head the paramilitary force till September 2018.

A year back ago, he was tipped to become the SPG chief but the government appointed Vivek Srrivastava, a 1989-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre of the elite agency that guards the Prime Minister.

Sharma’s batch-mate from the Kerala cadre, MK Singla, has been appointed special secretary (internal security) at the Union home ministry.

The order says he will hold the post till his retirement in February 2017.