SSB DG Chawdhary to hold additional charge of BSF

SSB Director General (DG) Daljit Singh Chawdhary will hold the additional charge of the Border Security Force following the premature repatriation of incumbent Nitin Agrawal, a government order said Saturday. Agrawal, a 1989-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Kerala cadre, was removed as the BSF DG on Friday by an order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by the prime minister.

A Union home ministry order issued on Saturday said that Chawdhary, a 1990-batch IPS officer of the the Uttar Pradesh cadre, will hold the additional charge of the post of BSF DG “till the appointment of a regular incumbent or until further orders, whichever is earlier.”

Chawdhary is the DG of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the force that guards India’s fronts with Nepal and Bhutan.

The ACC on Friday ordered similar premature and immediate repatriation of Agrawal’s deputy and Special DG (west), Yogesh Bahadur Khurania, to his parent cadre of Odisha.

The government’s decision to remove the two top BSF officers comes against the backdrop of the Jammu region, along the India-Pakistan international border, witnessing a spate of terror attacks leading to killing of number of army and security personnel as well as civilians.

The BSF is responsible for guarding the India-Pakistan front on India’s west side and Bangladesh on the east.