12,000 ITBP personnel to be deployed along China border

New Delhi, October 27, 2014: Against the backdrop of over 300 transgressions by the Chinese Army along the LAC 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 3,488 km-long Sino-India border, reports PTI.

The 12 new battalions (12,000 personnel) will be recruited mainly for deployment at 54 new border outposts (BoPs) that will be set up along the Sino-India border 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 the Indo-Tibetan Border Police along the strategic frontier in Arunachal Pradesh, which has witnessed incursion attempts from the Chinese side because of large gaps between two border posts.

Terming the incursion as ‘transgression’, the Government had informed the Rajya Sabha in August this year that the Chinese Army has transgressed the Sino-Indian border 334 times this year and a total of 1,278 times between 2010 and 2013.

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 Sino-India border and remaining four in Naxal-hit areas.

Source: Assam Tribune