The BSF that secures the frontiers on Bangladesh and Pakistan continues to be headed by the ITBP Director General SS Deswal in a stop-gap measure for the last nearly four months after the former BSF chief Vivek Johri was repatriated to his parent Madhya Pradesh cadre on March 11.
The ITBP is the designated border-guarding force and Lead Intelligence Agency on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China while the BSF is in a similar role along the frontiers with Bangladesh and Pakistan.
For the last over two months, the Indian Forces are in a standoff positions with the Chinese Army at several points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh where the role of the ITBP has further increased as additional troops have been rushed to augment a matching response to the buildup of the Chinese forces amid the tensions between the two countries.
The BSF also faces additional threat along the International Boundary (IB) with Pakistan in Rajasthan and Punjab as Pakistan’s army is a “brother” army for Chinese counterparts and can potentially play a spoilsport in the event of an escalation with Beijing. The need for a full-fledged chief of the BSF is the need of the hour, insiders said.
While Johri is a 1984 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre who heads the police in the State, Deswal is a Haryana cadre officer of the same batch and took additional charge of the BSF on March 11 when the ITBP was one of the lead forces managing quarantine facility in the country to screen and quarantine, at its Chhawla camp here, the Indians and foreigners evacuated from Wuhan which was then the epicentre of the Covid-19.
Besides the charge of ITBP, Deswal continues to hold the additional responsibility of the BSF till now.
“Consequent upon repatriation of Vivek Johri, (1984, IPS officer of MP cadre), Director General Border SecurityForce to his parent cadre, competent authority has approved that SS Deswal (1984-batch IPS officer of the Haryana cadre), DG, ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) shall hold additional charge of the post of DG BSF vice Shri Vivek Johri, till the appointment and joining of the successor or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” an order issued by the Home Ministry on March 10 had said.