Special DG DK Pathak to officiate as BSF chief

New Delhi: Senior IPS officer DK Pathak has been appointed as temporary chief of Border Security Force as incumbent director general Subhash Joshi will retire on Friday. Pathak, a 1979-batch officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, is presently the second in-command in the forces’ hierarchy and was posted as Special DG at the BSF Headquarters in New Delhi.[caption id=“attachment_1411145” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Getting a new chief. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] The home ministry today issued an order stating Pathak “will look after the duties of Director General BSF with effect from March 1, 2014 and till an officer is appointed to the post on regular basis, or until further orders”. Incumbent DG Joshi, a 1976-batch IPS officer of Uttarakhand cadre, will retire on Friday after serving in the force for over an year since he was appointed to the top post in December 2012. The BSF, with over 2.4 lakh personnel in its ranks, guards important Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh and it is also deployed for conducting a variety of internal security tasks including anti-Naxal operations. Sources said a panel of three senior Indian Police Service officers has been created for being appointed as BSF DG and once the home ministry approves the name it will go to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) for final approval. PTI