NSG, CISF, SSB chiefs: Know more about 3 IPS officers recently accorded apex scale

NSG chief RC Tayal

THE Central government last week granted apex scale, i.e. salary of a union secretary, to three senior IPS officers -- DG of CISF and 1980 batch West Bengal cadre IPS Surender Singh, NSG Director General and 1980 batch Assam cadre IPS RC Tayal, and 1980 batch West Bengal cadre IPS and DG of SSB Banshidhar Sharma. There is nothing unusual in this exercise, and for these officers who are retiring soon (Sharma retires end of this month), the raising of the scale will help more in post-retirement benefits than in actual salary payouts. But what seems interesting though is the fact (or rather co-incidence) that all these three chiefs of…
CISF, NSG and SSB belong to West Bengal and Assam cadres, and not UP, Rajasthan, UT or any other mainland cadres! Director General of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a post held by Surender Singh since May 2015, is considered to be an important one. Apart from serving in West Bengal and Rajasthan, Singh had a key role in Intelligence Bureau (IB) on central deputation. As an IB officer, he was posted in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh thereby becoming a Northeast expert on security issues. Later, he served as first secretary in the Indian High Commission in Dhaka (Bangladesh). Before getting elevated as DG of CISF, he was special director in IB in the rank of Special DG.
Singh’s IPS batch-mate Banshidhar Sharma, also from West Bengal cadre, is now director general (DG) in Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). He hails from Rajasthan, and taught in a government degree college in the state before joining Indian Police Service. SSB is a central armed police force that guards 2,450 km-long Indo-Nepal and Bhutan border. Before heading the SSB, Sharma had a long innings in Border Security Force serving in various capacities including as additional director general (ADG) of BSF.
Whereas SSB and CISF chiefs belong to West Bengal cadre, the DG of elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG) RC Tayal is an Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer. Tayal originally hails from Haryana. He had earlier served as an additional DG in the Sashastra Seema Bal. He has been serving as DG, NSG since May 31, 2015.