NATIONAL : IPS officer Nina Singh on Friday took charge as the new director general (DG) of the CISF, the central force that guards civil airports and other vital installations.

Singh, a 1989-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Rajasthan cadre, is the first woman head of the force and overall the third woman DG of a central armed police force (CAPF).

The officer was accorded a guard of honor before she formally took charge at the CISF headquarters at Lodhi Road in Delhi. Her husband, IAS officer and Union Consumer Affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, was present.

Nina Singh has been serving as the DG in charge of the force since the retirement of her predecessor, Sheel Vardhan Singh, on August 31.

According to an order issued on Thursday, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved her regular appointment to the post.

The new DG holds a Master of Arts degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University, USA.

She is also trained in the evaluation of social programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, and co-authored research papers with Economics Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both from MIT, USA, on evidence-based police reforms initiatives, CISF chief spokesperson Shrikant Kishore said in a statement.

He said that the DG while interacting with senior officers, stated that her priorities would be to enhance professionalism and welfare measures in the CISF.

Apart from serving as the Member-Secretary of the Rajasthan State Commission for Women, Singh has worked in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

She is the 30th DG of the 1969-raised force, and her retirement is slated on July 31 next year.

The CISF has about 1.80 lakh personnel in its ranks and is tasked with guarding civil airports, Delhi Metro, historical monuments such as Red Fort, installations in the nuclear and aerospace domain, and other such vital facilities. (PTI)