The Director General of the Assam Rifles (DGAR) is the head of the Assam Rifles. The DGAR has their office in the Headquarters DGAR at Shillong. Appointed by the Government of India, the DGAR reports to the Minister of Home Affairs. The Director General is an Indian Army Officer of the rank of Lieutenant General and is assisted by three Inspector Generals, each holding the rank of Major General, and other senior officers heading various staff appointments. The Additional Director General of the Assam Rifles who is a Major General - ranked officer serves as the Second-in-command to the Director General. The current Director General, Lieutenant General Vikas Lakhera is the 22nd DGAR.
History The first Director General post-Independence was Mr HG Bartly, CIE, IP who assumed the appointment on 17 September 1947. The first Indian Director General was Colonel Sidhiman Rai, MC appointed on 15 August 1948. The rank of officers holding the appointment of Director General Assam Rifles has been consistently upgraded from Colonel to Brigadier (One star General) to Major General (Two star General) to Lieutenant General (Three star General) now. Indian Army officers on deputation have been holding the appointment of Director General Assam Rifles until date.
List of directors general S.No Rank Name Appointment date Left office References 1 - H. G. Bartly, CIE, IP 17 Sep 1947 14 Aug 1948 2 Colonel Sidhiman Rai, MC 15 Aug 1948 10 Dec 1949 3 Colonel R. N. D. Frier, MC 16 Dec 1949 29 Feb 1952 4 Brigadier K. Bhagwati Singh, AVSM 1 Mar 1952 4 May 1954 5 Brigadier K. S. Katoch, MC 5 May 1954 29 Aug 1955 6 Brigadier Harbhajan Singh 7 Sep 1955 30 Nov 1957 7 Major General A. S. Guraya 1 Feb 1958 14 Dec 1965 8 S. N. Bhatia 15 Dec 1965 15 Feb 1968 9 V. B. Tuli 20 Feb 1968 19 May 1972 10 M. G. Hazari, PVSM, AVSM 30 Mar 1973 29 Feb 1976 11 K. Chiman Singh, PVSM 1 Mar 1976 25 Jun 1979 12 Lieutenant General Sushil Kumar, PVSM 1 Sep 1979 2 Dec 1981 13 J. K. Puri, PVSM, AVSM 2 Dec 1981 29 Nov 1983 14 P. E. Menon, PVSM 30 Nov 1983 31 May 1987 15 M. K. Lahiri, PVSM 1 Jun 1987 21 Dec 1989 16 R. V. Kulkarni, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM 22 Feb 1990 9 Mar 1992 17 V. P. Airy, MVC 18 Mar 1992 31 Mar 1993 18 Y. M. Bammi, ADC 15 Jul 1993 30 Apr 1995 19 T. P. S. Rawat, PVSM, VSM 19 May 1995 30 Apr 1998 20 Gurpreet Singh, PVSM 1 May 1998 18 Jan 2001 21 G. K. Duggal, PVSM, AVSM, VrC 19 Jan 2001 18 Jan 2003 22 H. S. Kanwar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM 1 Mar 2003 30 Apr 2004 23 Bhopinder Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM 1 May 2004 30 Jun 2006 24 Paramjit Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM 6 Jul 2006 31 May 2008 25 K. S. Yadava, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM 9 Jun 2008 30 Sep 2010 26 Rameshwar Roy, UVSM, AVSM, YSM 6 Dec 2010 22 Feb 2012 27 Ranbir Singh, PVSM, AVSM, SM 27 Aug 2012 31 Mar 2014 28 R. K. Rana, SM, VSM 26 May 2014 31 Aug 2015 29 H. J. S. Sachdev, PVSM, AVSM, SM, ADC 1 Sep 2015 30 Sep 2016 30 Shokin Chauhan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM 12 Dec 2016 31 Mar 2018 31 Sukhdeep Sangwan, AVSM, SM** 4 May 2018 31 May 2021 32 Pradeep Chandran Nair, AVSM, YSM 1 June 2021 31 July 2024 33 Vikas Lakhera, AVSM, SM 1 August 2024 Incumbent
See also Assam Rifles Special Frontier Force
References