Sashastra Seema Bal 2013 India

Today is Sastara Seema   Bal foundation day

Sashastra Seema Bal or SSB, in English the Armed Border Force is one of India's Central Armed Police Forces. It is currently under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. It was formerly known as the Special Service Bureau.

The Special Service Bureau (also abbreviated SSB) was set up in early 20 December 1963, following the Sino-Indian War. The primary task of the force was to provide armed support for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's foreign intelligence agency, with a secondary objective to inculcate feelings of national belonging in the border population and assist them in developing their capabilities for resistance through a continuous process of motivation, training, development, welfare programmes and activities in the then NEFA, North Assam (the northern areas of the Indian state of Assam), North Bengal (the northern areas of the Indian State of West Bengal) and the hills of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh.

The programme was later extended to  Manipur,  Tripura,  Jammu

Its primary purpose was to counter an act of aggression  by the People's Liberation Army. The previous thinking had been that, militarily, the Chinese were "superior" to India and in the event of a war, the Chinese might attempt to overwhelm Indian forces. So, in 1963, a unique force was created, which would, in the event of such an attempt by the Chinese to invade and occupy Indian territory, merge with the border population, donning civilian attire, working a parallel administration and carry out the war of India with the help of guerrilla tactics.

The SSB model proved an enormous success, evident by what it had achieved in training the Mukti Basing  in  Bangladesh and other places, COIN Op's in the north-east and in its ability to provide security at high peaks during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 as well as during the Kargil War.

From the Cabinet, the SSB was transferred to the Ministry  of Home Affairs  and assigned the duties of manning the Nepal  and  Bhutan borders. The SSB was renamed the Sashastra Seema Bal, in accordance with its new role, and would come under the administrative  control of the Ministry of Home Affairs in January 2001. This was done after the Kargil War with the adoption of the "one border one force concept".

In the 40 years of its existence, SSB endeavoured to present a benign face of the government among border populace in the far flung and inaccessible areas subscribing to the ETHOS of Service, Security and Brotherhood. The local populace always found SSB standing steadfastly with them during difficult times.

Pursuant to the recommendations of a group of ministers on reforming the national security system, SSB was declared as a Border Guarding Force and Lead Intelligence Agency (LIA) for Indo-Nepal border (June, 2001) and assigned the task of guarding the 1751 km long Indo-Nepal border

Since then SSB was re-christened into Sashastra Seema Bal and reached new heights. SSB is the first border guarding force that has decided to recruit women battalions. It is doing excellent job as Border Guarding Force on Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan Border.

SSB is also engaged in Counter-Insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and Anti-naxal operations in Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. It is also performing internal security duties i.e. Election duties and law and order duties in different parts of India.

SSB celebrated the year 2013 as Golden Jubilee year marking 50 years of its raising. The celebrations have commenced with the Flag-off of a Mount Everest Expedition on 2 April 2013 from Delhi.

The team led by Shri Somit Joshi, Commandant, successfully reached at the peak at about 9.45 am on 21 May 2013 to commemorate  the 50th anniversary.

In 2014 the government of India approved the recruitment of women as combat officers in SSB.

During  SSB in its Golden Jubilee year celebration glorious years of unflinching service to the nation. Department of Posts commemorated the occasion by releasing a postage stamp.

Issued Date : 29.11.2013
Denomination :500 Paisa