CRPF DG Prakash Mishra to hold additional charge of ITBP

NEW DELHI: India-China border guarding force ITBP will have a temporary chief from the New Year as incumbent Director General Subhas Goswami retires tomorrow.

As a stop-gap arrangement, CRPF chief Prakash Mishra has been appointed by the government as the interim DG of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force.

Sources said a regular DG for the 50,000-personnel ITBP will be appointed soon after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the name of an IPS officer for the post.

A Home Ministry statement today said Mishra will hold the additional charge of ITBP DG without elaborating on the duration of this arrangement.

Goswami, a 1977-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer, will proceed on his superannuation tomorrow after heading the force for over an year.

ITBP not only guards the 3,488km long Sino-India frontier, where incursions by Chinese troops have been reported often, but also renders a variety of internal security duties including conducting anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh and recently in Maharashtra.

As part of its foreign assignment, the mountain warfare trained force guards the Indian Embassy in Kabul.