Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Director General (DG) Rakesh Pal died due to heart attack in Chennai. He complained of uneasiness, after which he was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital on Sunday. Let us tell you that Rakesh Pal was appointed as the 25th Director General of the Indian Coast Guard in July 2023. Rakesh Pal, resident of Uttar Pradesh, was a former student of the Indian Naval Academy. He joined the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in January 1989.
Rakesh Pal acquired professional expertise in gunnery and weapon systems at the Indian Naval School Dronacharya in Kochi. He did Electro-Optics Fire Control Solution course from United Kingdom. Rakesh Pal had the honor of being the first gunner of ICG.
In his career spanning over 34 years, he had worked on many important positions. These mainly include the posts of Commander Coast Guard Area (North West) at Gandhinagar, Deputy Director General (Policy and Planning) at Coast Guard Headquarters in New Delhi and Additional Director General Coast Guard. Apart from this, he held many prestigious posts like Director (Infra and Works) and Principal Director (Administration) at Coast Guard Headquarters, New Delhi.
Rakesh Pal also had the experience of commanding all categories of ICG ships – ICGS Samarth, ICGS Vijit, ICGS Sucheta Kripalani, ICGS Ahilyabai and ICGS C-03. He also commanded two coast guard bases in the forward area in Gujarat – Okha and Vadinar. In February 2022, he was promoted to the rank of Additional Director General and appointed as Additional Director General Coast Guard at Coast Guard Headquarters in New Delhi.
In February 2023, Rakesh Pal was also given the additional charge of Director General Coast Guard. Under his supervision many major operations and exercises were successfully completed, including seizure of drugs and gold worth crores of rupees, rescue of sailors during severe cyclonic storms, joint exercises with foreign coast guards, anti-poaching operations, cyclones and other natural calamities. These include humanitarian assistance and coastal security exercises. Rakesh Pal has also been awarded the Tatrakshak Medal (TM) in the year 2013 and the President Tatrakshak Medal (PTM) in the year 2018 for his distinguished service.