In its bid to augment the 54 newly-sanctioned border outposts (BoPs) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the paramilitary force will soon recruit 12,000 fresh personnel to raise 12 battalions to bolster its presence along the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.
The Government is learnt to have given “in principle” approval to the proposal and once the battalions are raised, they will essentially be deployed in Arunachal Pradesh.The move follows the Union Home Ministry sanctioning 54 new ITBP border outposts in the North-Eastern State. The paramilitary had submitted a comprehensive proposal for creation of new BoPs and the personnel required to man them. The proposal also included creation of additional training and transit infrastructure, official sources said.
Besides the creation of the new BoPs, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had recently also announced a Rs175-crore package for beefing up infrastructure along the border in Arunachal Pradesh.The strategic frontier in Arunachal Pradesh has in the past witnessed incursion attempts from Chinese forces due to the prevailing gaps between two border posts.
The additional frontier is expected to help the paramilitary in effective border management and reduce the operational gaps in the Sector where the aerial distance between some posts there is 100-150 km.Terming the incursion as ‘transgression’, the Government had informed the Rajya Sabha in August this year that Chinese Army has transgressed the Sino-Indian border 334 times this year and a total of 1,278 times between 2010-13.
Chinese Army transgressed the border 334 times till August 4, this year. The number of such incidents stood at 411 in 2013, 426 in 2012 and 213 in 2011, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had said on the floor of the House.The present strength of the ITBP is 62 battalions and about 60 per cent of the deployment is along Indo-China border. Three battalions are deployed in Naxal-affected Rajnandgaon and another five battalions will be deployed in Gadhchiroli in Maharashtra to counter the ultra-left menace.
The recruitment process is expected to begin once all the clearances, including from Finance Ministry is received. The recruitment exercise will be conducted in a staggered manner over the next three to five years, the sources added.The possibility of manning the new BoPs is nil as the paramilitary is fully stretched with border guarding responsibilities and participation in counter insurgency operations and law and order duties.
The move to strengthen the paramilitary comes a few months after the Centre cleared a proposal from the Army to raise a mountain corps in the backdrop of massive military infrastructure development across the border with the northern neighbour.