More security at China border

The Narendra Modi government plans to give a major push to the security apparatus along the sensitive India-China border, and to double the deployment of security forces in the region in the next six to eight months.

Sources said the PMO, along with the home and defence ministries, was working on a plan to raise the deployment level of security forces in the northern, eastern and central sectors along the Chinese border in a bid to check regular Chinese military incursions into Indian territory.

While top government officials are tightlipped on the actual strength of forces deployed on both the Chinese and Pakistan borders for strategic reasons, sources said as of now 70,000 paramilitary and Army personnel were posted along the Chinese border. A sizeable chunk of this covers Ladakh, Uttrakhand and Arunachal Pradesh. But this figure will rise substantially in the months ahead, up to even double over a period of six to eight months.

“In principle there is complete agreement bet-ween the PMO and the defence and home ministries that security deployment along the India-China border needs to be increased substantially.”
Forces like the ITBP, which primarily guards this border, is already in the process of increasing its strength and has been told to expedite that process.

“We will deploy some troops from the Army along the Line of Actual Control,” a senior official said. Sources said the national security adviser’s office and the two ministries have held several discussions on this, and a final blueprint will be drawn up in the next few weeks.

In addition, it has also been decided that the bulk of the Rs 15,000 crores allocated by the surface transport ministry to build highways in the northeastern region will be used for crucial road projects along the Chinese border.

The border management division in the MHA has been asked to work out a comprehensive plan for this and present it to the Cabinet Committee of Security at the earliest. Sources claimed that it has also been agreed upon that all projects related to India-China border, ranging from increasing manpower to highways to procuring hi-tech equipment for the troops, will be accorded top priority by the CCS.

- deccanchronicle