NEW DELHI, Jun 14: Nitin Agarwal, a Kerala cadre IPS officer of the 1989 batch, on Wednesday took charge as the new director general of the BSF that guards India’s frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Acting Director General S L Thaosen handed over the ceremonial baton of the force to Agarwal at the Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters in the CGO complex on Lodhi Road.
Agarwal, who has earlier served in various central armed police forces (CAPFs) such as the CISF, ITBP and SSB apart from his cadre state Kerala, was serving as additional DG (operations) of the CRPF till now.
Thaosen, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, is the CRPF DG and has been holding the additional charge of the 2.65 lakh personnel strong BSF.
Agarwal is the 31st DG of the BSF that was raised on December 1, 1965. He holds a B.Tech and an M.Tech degree from IIT Delhi, along with an M.Phil in social science from Panjab University.
The new DG is known to take a personal interest in resolving the grievances of the jawans and officers and he often calls them personally and even rings up the authorities in the state who can help the personnel in solving the problems they face in their hometowns, officials said.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) had on Sunday night issued an order appointing Agarwal as the BSF DG “from the date of joining the post and up to 31.07.2026, his date of superannuation, or till further orders, whichever is earlier”.
This order for appointing a full-time chief for the BSF came over five months after then DG Pankaj Kumar Singh retired on December 31, 2022.
The new BSF chief, official sources said, was given an operational briefing by senior officials on the current deployment of the force including the spate of illegal drugs and arms-laden drone sorties made into India from along the Pakistan front, largely in Punjab. (PTI)
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