Jaipur: Retired director general of the Border Security Force (BSF) Pankaj Kumar Singh has been appointed as deputy national security adviser. According to an official order issued to this effect, Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Rajasthan cadre was appointed as deputy national security adviser on Monday.
The retired police officer has been appointed on a re-employment contract for a period of two years. Singh retired as BSF chief on December 31, 2022. Prior to this, he worked in positions ranging from SP to IG and ADG in Rajasthan. His last appointment in the state was as an ADG. He was born in 1962 in Lucknow.
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Singh's first posting after selection as an IPS officer was in 1990 on the post of Assistant Superintendent of Police, Jodhpur East. In 1992, he was the Assistant Superintendent of Police, Kotwali, Jaipur. Whereas in February 1992 he became Superintendent of Police Dholpur, ADC to Governor in 1993, Superintendent of Police Jaipur Rural in 1993, Superintendent of Police Bhilwara in 1994 and Superintendent of Police CID Vigilance Jaipur in 1997.
He was later sent on deputation to Bosnia for a year. After this, he held the post of SP Jodhpur in 1998 and SP Kota City in 1999 in Alwar. Singh has also served in CBI as Superintendent of Police. In the year 2002, he was promoted to the post of Deputy Inspector General of Police in Delhi itself. When Singh took charge of the BSF on August 31, 2021, he created history of a son and a father holding the top post of a paramilitary force during their services.
His father and retired IPS officer of the 1959-batch, Prakash Singh, had also headed the BSF from June 1993 to January 1994. Prakash Singh is considered an architect of police reforms in the country. He had petitioned the Supreme Court in 1996 for carrying out reforms in the police establishment following which the government started giving a fixed tenure of two years at least to the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, the CBI, the foreign secretary, the RAW chief, and the Union home secretary.
