Police stations on frontiers to form 2nd line of defence
Amid hyper activities by Chinese PLA all along the Line of Actual Control, the Centre is creating a “border belt” comprising all the police stations adjoining the frontiers that will act as a second line of defence after respective frontier guarding forces across the land border with various countries.
Typically, the Central paramilitary forces designated for the various border security roles are also known as border guarding forces like the BSF and the ITBP among others, and act as the first line of defence. The border guarding forces are also designated as the Lead Intelligence Agency on their respective operational frontier. While the ITBP secures the frontier with China, the BSF is deployed along the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Sashastra Seema Bal secures the borders with Nepal and Bhutan. The Assam Rifles is deployed along the border with Myanmar.
“The process of mapping the police stations falling under the border belt is underway. This will help identify the police stations, districts, area, length of the border under their jurisdiction and the population covered by the border belt,” a senior security official said.
The Union Home Ministry will coordinate with the police chiefs of the States and Union Territories along the border to initiate action in a time-bound manner.
As part of the overhaul of the police stations along the borders, the development of infrastructure is also being included in the Border Area Development Programme funded by the Centre. The Station House Officers of the border police stations are also proposed to be given a fixed two-year tenure to maintain continuity of the development programmes and gather ground level Intelligence.
The SHOs of such police stations are also proposed to be included in the meetings of the Lead Intelligence Agency. Officers from the Crime Investigation Department (CID)/State Intelligence are also proposed to be posted in the border police stations.
For this, the Union Home Ministry, Intelligence Bureau and police chiefs of the States and Union Territories will coordinate to implement the proposals in a time-bound manner, they said.
In addition, use of optimum technology, technological surveillance solutions like anti-drone technology, foliage penetration radars, sensors, surveillance cameras and intrusion detection systems among others have been deployed for effective border management.