BackGovt to sanction 12 battalions to ITBP for China border duties
The raising of battalions will be done in a phased manner and in a time period of over 5 years
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New Delhi: The government is set to clear a proposal to raise a dozen battalions and induct close to 12,000 fresh personnel in the India-China border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) to bolster the force’s presence along this strategic frontier.
Official sources said an ‘in-principle’ approval has been granted by the Union home ministry in this direction after home minister Rajnath Singh announced sanctioning of 54 new ITBP force border outposts in Arunachal Pradesh during the forces’ Raising Day event last week.
In view of these additional posts along the Arunachal border, the ITBP had projected to the government that it would need to raise over a dozen battalions to man these new locations. The raising of battalions would be done in a phased manner and in a time period of over five years.
“An in-principle approval has been made in this regard. Now that the home ministry has already cleared creation of 54 border posts, manpower recruitment and training for the task is the immediate necessity. The force is awaiting the final policy approval after which largescale recruitments will be launched," they said.
The mountain-trained force has recently completed a “restructuring" which led to creation of nine new battalions and one sector headquarter keeping in mind ITBP’s primary task of guarding the 3,488 km long frontier which largely witnesses adverse climatic conditions and snowy weather. Apart from setting up of 54 new border outposts, the home minister had also announced a Rs175 crore package for beefing up infrastructure along the border in Arunachal Pradesh during the same event.
The announcement was made by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who made it clear that India wanted to solve the border dispute with China through dialogue. He had stated that “peace with honour" was the most important requirement for building good friendly relations with that country and other neighbours. PTI
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