Following the visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to the headquarters of various paramilitary forces, the border guarding forces are working on a proposal to conduct vulnerability mapping of the respective borders under their area of responsibility and prepare an action plan to reduce threat along the frontiers in the next five years.
As an outcome of Shah’s visit, vital installations in the border areas are proposed to be brought under the coverage of anti-drone technology.
The proposal for revamping the border security will also incorporate quality and number of manpower, technical requirements and budgetary provisions needed to securing the frontiers and reducing vulnerabilities.
The Ministry has also invited suggestions for recruiting 50 per cent of the personnel in the border guarding forces from the States along the borders.
The border guarding forces have also been advised to identify groups of young officers who will cover the frontiers on motor bikes and identify loopholes in the security paraphernalia along the frontiers.
The plan to strengthen the borders also includes a proposal to train jawans in the languages spoken by people across the borders. A training scheme is proposed to train the jawans in such languages.
The forces have also been asked to identify vacant land in the bordering areas to settle former paramilitary forces’ personnel to check migration of population from such areas. The forces have also been asked to seek suggestions from the jawans to check migration of population from bordering areas.
Officials said there is also a proposal to formulate a mechanism for reporting by the border guarding forces with their respective headquarters for holding institutional meeting by the forces with the district/state administration in the border areas.
The border guarding forces have been asked to tie up with the Border Security Force (BSF) to install Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) on a trial basis along the frontiers with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.
Two pilot projects covering about 71 km on India-Pakistan Border (10 km) and India-Bangladesh Border (61 km) of CIBMS last year. The next phases of CIBMS seek to cover about 1,955 km of the border which cannot be physically fenced. The CIBMS project will vastly improve the capability of BSF in detecting and controlling the cross border crimes like illegal infiltration, smuggling of contraband goods, human trafficking BESIDES and cross border terrorism smart fencing comprising an array of technological gadgets.
While the BSF guards the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh borders, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) secures the frontier along China. The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) guards the frontiers along Bhutan and Nepal.