Despite Chinese incursions, Army unlikely to get operational command of ITBP

Notwithstanding a 20-25 per cent increase in the number of transgression bids along the Sino-India border, there is no move to hand over operational command of the border guarding force ITBP to the Indian Army.

Top government officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs said there has been an increase in transgression by 20 to 25 per cent this year along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

However, the officials said this was largely due to the perception issue of LAC which had not been properly demarcated and did not rule out the possibility of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel also stepping across the line at times.

Asked whether there was any proposal for handing over operational command of the ITBP to the Indian Army, the officials said there was no such move “as of now”.

The Army, through the defence ministry, has been routing requests for many years to the home ministry for handing over the operational command of the ITBP to it for better coordination between the forces along the LAC.

Asked about the situation in Sikkim, the officials said the ITBP was not deployed along the border in the northeastern state and therefore, they were not in a position to comment on the issue.

 indianexpress