NEW DELHI: The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy , where Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are trained, got its first woman chief in its 65-year-old history. The Union home ministry on Tuesday appointed Aruna Bahuguna , a 1979 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, as NPA director.

The NPA director is an IPS officer of the rank of director-general. The director's post fell vacant in November after the incumbent, Subhas Goswami was posted as the chief of ITBP.

In December, NPA joint director T K Vinod Kumar was given the additional charge of the director.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently issued orders for the NPA director.

Bahuguna is currently the special director-general of the CRPF, second only to the chief of the country's largest paramilitary force in hierarchy.

She is also the first woman to be posted as an SDG in the three-lakh strong CRPF, which is the nodal agency for anti-Naxal operations. She retires in February 2017.

Bahuguna will be the 28th director and the first woman to head NPA. Her husband, S Jayaraman, is also an IPS officer who retired in September as special secretary (internal security) in the home ministry.