Sashastra Seema Bal

Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) is under the auspices of the Home Ministry and is part of the CAPF (Central Armed Police Force) along with six other central security forces in India. The six other central security forces are Border Security Force, Assam Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force, Central Industrial Security Force, National Security Guard and Indo Tibetan Border Police.

Formation of Sashastra Seema Bal

It was established in the month of May in the year 1963 as the Special Service Bureau after the 1962 Chinese aggression. In the year 2001, SSB was declared the main intelligence agency for Indo-Nepal and assigned to the Indo-Nepal border. In the year 2004 it was also assigned the border of India with Bhutan. In the year 2004, SSB received the President’s Colors award in recognition of its key role in national security since its inception.

Decision of forming the SSB

After the incursion of the Chinese in the year 1962, it was considered that the country’s borders could not be protected with rifles alone. The government saw the support and determined will of a dedicated border population, along with a deep knowledge and understanding of the terrain, as well as the ethics and culture of the border population, necessary to defend  borders effectively. As a result, an unconventional and unique, but specialized organization that would function in vulnerable, remote, strategic, topographically and climatically difficult border areas and would motivate border populations in multiple states to protect the national sovereignty of the nation was conceived as the SSB.

Responsibilities

The SSB was formed to promote people’s sense of security in border areas. To prevent cross-border crime and unauthorized exit and entry from Indian Territory. To prevent smuggling as well as other illegal activities on the borders of India.

It is headquartered in New Delhi and Frontier’s three locations are in Patna, Lucknow and Guwahati. It is distributed on the borders of Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal through the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. Kumar Rajesh Chandra is the current Director General of SSB.