Archana Ramasundram is new SSB chief; Tamil Nadu IPS officer becomes first woman to head paramilitary force

Senior IPS officer Archana Ramasundram, who is the director of the National Crime Records Bureau, was on Monday appointed as the Director General of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

Written by: India.com News Desk

Updated: February 2, 2016, 3:13 PM IST

Share

Share Article

• Facebook
• WhatsApp
• X
• Email
• Telegram
• Linkedin

https://www.india.com/news/india/archana-ramasundram-is-new-ssb-chief-tamil-nadu-ips-officer-becomes-first-woman-to-head-paramilitary-force-910605/ Copy

New Delhi, Feb.2: Senior IPS officer Archana Ramasundram, who is the director of the National Crime Records Bureau, was on Monday appointed as the Director General of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). She became the first woman IPS officer to head the Central Armed Police Forces. Ramasundram, who is a 1980-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer, is the first to be posted to head a border guarding force and would continue in the post till September 2017.

The SSB is deployed along India’s border with Nepal and Bhutan. There are five paramilitary forces in the country-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. (ALSO READ: Sameer Bhujbal, nephew of NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal arrested by ED in money laundering case)

Archana Ramasundram’s recent appointment as additional director of the CBI was mired in controversy after she joined the investigative agency without formally getting relieved from her parent cadre, Tamil Nadu. Her assignment was challenged in the Supreme Court. The apex court restrained her from discharging duties in the agency. Later, she was appointed head of the National Crime Records Bureau.

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. Prasad, a 1981 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre,
was in 2014 unceremoniously removed as chief of the Special Protection Group, which provides security to the Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers and their family members, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Nepal to attend the Saarc summit.

He was in January last year appointed Special Director General of the CRPF, the force entrusted with multiple duties in the internal security domain including, anti-naxal operations.