india

Updated: Jul 29, 2019 00:52 IST

Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Vivek Johri will be taking over as the new director general of the Border Security Force (BSF), an official order said on Sunday.

The order has been issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) that is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has home minister Amit Shah as its member.

The order also stated that Johri has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Union home ministry with “immediate effect.” Johri will attain superannuation in September, 2020, the order stated. The 1984-batch officer will be succeeding Rajni Kanth Mishra who retires this August. Johri, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is presently serving as the special secretary in the RAW, under the Cabinet Secretariat.

The BSF is the country’s largest border guarding force with over 2.5 lakh personnel in its ranks and is tasked to guard the Indian frontiers with Pakistan (over 3,000 km) and Bangladesh (4,096km).

Besides a volatile India -Pakistan border, Johri takes over the forces when increasing amount of drugs seem to smuggled through Punjab.