NEW DELHI, Aug 22: Sanjeev Raina, a 1987-batch ITBP officer, has been appointed Additional Director General (ADG) in the India-China LAC guarding force, only the second time when a non-IPS officer has been elevated to this post in the force.
An order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday said Raina, serving as an Inspector General (IG) at the force's central sector headquartered in Bhopal, is being elevated to the ADG rank apart from another officer, IG Jaspal Singh, for the panel year 2024.
However, Raina, 59, will serve in the new post for just over a month as he is scheduled to retire next month.
A rank piping ceremony was held at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) headquarters on Lodhi Road here on Thursday in the presence of DG Rahul Rasgotra and other senior officers.
Raina has now been posted as the ADG (western command) of the ITBP headquartered in Chandigarh, the order said. The formation looks after the deployment of the force along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh apart from supervising units located in Punjab, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir.
This is only the second time in the 1962 raised ITBP when a cadre officer has been elevated to the ADG post, the second highest rank in the force after the DG.
The ADG post in the ITBP and other central armed police forces (CAPFs) is essentially occupied by officers who come on deputation to these organisations from the Indian Police Service (IPS).
“This appointment also came late as the departmental promotion committee meeting was delayed. Jaspal Singh will be appointed ADG after Raina's retirement and he too will retire in a few months in December,” a senior officer said.
Raina, who hails from Kashmir, joined the ITBP in November, 1987 and has served tenures in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, and northeast, and is credited with setting up the famed counter insurgency and jungle warfare (CIJW) school of the mountain-warfare trained force in Mahidanda, Uttarakhand.
Apart from the LAC, the ITBP having strength of about 98,000 personnel is deployed for rendering a number of internal security duties in the country including conduct of anti-Naxal operations.
