Against the backdrop of over 300 transgressions by the Chinese army along the line of actual control till August this year, the government has given an in-principle approval for induction of nearly 12,000 personnel in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, a force which guards the 3,488km-long India-China border.
The 12 new battalions (12,000 personnel) will be recruited mainly for deployment at 54 new border outposts (BoPs) that will be set along LAC in Arunachal Pradesh, official sources said here.
The setting up of new posts, announced by home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday last, will bolster the presence of ITBP along the strategic frontier in Arunachal Pradesh which has witnessed incursion attempts from Chinese side because of large gaps between two border posts.
Terming the incursion as "transgression", the government had informed Rajya Sabha in August this year that Chinese army has transgressed the 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 sources now said an in-principle approval has been granted by the Union home ministry after the ITBP had submitted a detailed plan that it would require to raise additional 12 battalions to man these new locations.
The present strength of the ITBP is 62 battalions and 58 of them are deployed along the India-China border and remaining four in Naxalite-hit areas. "An in-principle approval has been made in this regard," a senior home ministry official said and added that after a final approval, large scale recruitment will be carried out in a phased manner over a period of five years.
Apart from setting up of 54 new border outposts, the home minister had also announced a Rs 175 crore package for beefing up infrastructure along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. - timesofindia
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