Several MPs on Wednesday expressed concern in the Rajya Sabha over death of 527 Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in the last five years due to various health reasons and charged that jawans operating in remote areas including India-China border lacked basic amenities and high quality weapons.
The Government, however, said facilities provided to the ITBP jawans were on a par with the Army and efforts were always on to upgrade infrastructure. Home Minister Rajnath Singh also said only one jawan had died while serving in high-altitude area and the Government was regularly carrying medical check-up of ITBP personnel deployed in those areas.
Raising the issue during Question Hour HK Dua (nominated) said the figures of death were “shocking” adding 109 men died in 2010, 96 in 2011, 118 in 2012, 123 in 2013 and 81 deaths so far this year. He sought to know the medical reasons for these deaths and whether the personnel were acclimatized before deployed in high altitude areas.
Rajiv Shukla (Congress) said ITBP jawans were dying due to frost bite and expressed concern over their living conditions in inhospitable terrain. He also said the force was facing problems like inadequate leave to its jawans. Ramgopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party) said the shelter provided to jawans in extreme cold conditions were poor in quality and sought to know if the ITBP jawans were provided with latest weapons to face any threat from the Chinese.
Denying these charges, the Home Minister said there was only one death due to high altitude diseases during the past five years. His deputy Kiren Rijiju said, “Considering the fact that in the last five years only one case of death occurred because of the High Altitude Diseases like Pulmonary Edema/Cerebral Edema, the figure cannot be said to be high.” He also said ITBP personnel are posted at high altitudes above 15,000 feet only for three months and are given duties elsewhere for the remaining nine months of the year.