Badal wants women officers in paramilitary forces

CHANDIGARH - Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal Wednesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw an official notification barring the recruitment of women officers in paramilitary forces.

Badal wrote to the prime minister seeking his intervention following the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) notification.

The UPSC has said that only male candidates can apply for the post of officers like assistant commandants in the Sashastra Seema Bal, the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.

Badal said that after the women officers were posted on the western and eastern borders, the infiltration and smuggling from these areas declined considerably. She called the UPSC notification “retrograde”.