|
 Celebrating
the completion of 50 years of inception, the Indo-Tibetan
Border Police (ITBP) will now have its own water
wing, procure the latest equipment, get allowances
at par with the Army at high altitude and will
meet the manpower crunch by a major restructuring
and recruitment.
Home Minister P Chidambaram congratulated ITBP
for good work in helping maintain peace and said
that the Government was taking several steps to
strengthen the force as well as the welfare system
for the personnel.
There has been peace on the border, and that
itself is a something nice for military and paramilitary
personnel on both the sides.
ITBP Director General Ranjit Sinha observed on
the ceremonial occasion to mark 50 years of the
force that the India-China border has been “extremely
peaceful” and that there were no new threats to
its security.
Rejecting recent reports of incursion attempts
by China, he said: “There are disputes in certain
sectors because of the Line of Actual Control
at the Sino-India border. But it is extremely
peaceful. There is nothing which requires any
measures from the Indian side to further guard
the border. First you should know the boundary.
If you do not exactly know your home’s boundary,
then how would you say there has been an incursion.
It is a matter on which talks are still underway.”
The ITBP chief also negated reports of Chinese
bunkers on the Indian side saying that he was
not aware of any such intrusion.
Sinha informed that he had met the Indian Air
Force chief recently to discuss as to how the
two forces could mutually work along the Indo-Tibetan
border. “ITBP does not have any service for air
surveillance to find if there has been such violation
or not. We are not equipped for it. We do not
have radars to find out whether or not there has
been violation of our air space.”
On the golden anniversary of ITBP, the Government
has sanctioned its restructuring.
ITBP has got 13 new battalions, two Sector Headquarters,
one Frontier, seven specialised training centres
and three Recruit Training Centres, informed the
Director General.
With its 55,000 personnel, ITBP guards the 3,488-km-long
India- China border from the Karakoram pass in
the Ladakh region to Jechap La in Arunachal Pradesh.
Besides this, the force is also involved in anti-naxal
operations, security of vital installations and
VVIPs, election duties and disaster management.
“We were facing manpower crunch as the force
has got new duties in naxal operations, disaster
management and VVIP protection. New battalions
will help us there. There will also be some relief
for our personnel posted on high altitudes by
rotation.
 By
2015, all the new personnel would be inducted,
he said.
The ITBP chief also informed that the force is
in the process of acquiring the latest equipment.
“We require new equipment as our boys are posted
in very difficult areas. Sometimes they have to
go out during night time or if they are moving
in naxal affected areas, so they require a special
type of equipment. We have given the specifications
and the government has allowed us to do it internally.”
Sinha said that high speed boats are also going
to be a part of the ITBP inventory.
They are being procured for its newly created
water wing to man lakes, rivers and hot springs
in the Himalayan region.”We had asked the government
to give us a water wing so that we can patrol
along the large water bodies on the border. Government
has accepted it. We are now raising it. It is
not operational yet. We will be buying high speed
boats. Personnel will also be trained for it.”
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chidambaram said
that government had sanctioned construction of
27 roads for ITBP to make movement to border post
easier. He announced High Altitude Allowance for
43 border outposts at par with Army.
He also announced that ITBP jawans could now
use hired local porters and animal transport for
their movement in high altitude border posts.
Earlier, they had to carry heavy loads during
their movement. Even taking small steps is challenging
in the low oxygen, extremely low temperature,
avalanche prone terrain but the local people are
used to that environment.
ITBP jawans spends over six months at heights
ranging up to 18000ft. He assured that the goal
is to bring down the average posting at one of
these outposts to around three months.
Mr Sinha decorated 29 Officers and Jawans with
DG’s Insignia and Commendation letters in recognition
of their exceptional service and outstanding performance
in different fields.
The Force has conducted more than 14 major and
hundreds of minor rescue and relief operations
during this year. He said during recent earthquake
in Sikkim, more than 800 personnel of ITBP were
engaged in rescue operation.
Mr Sinha said that ITBP also had an excellent
track record in UN Peacekeeping Operations. ITBP
contingent (INDFPU-1) deployed in Kinshasa in
Congo provided assistance to UN in maintaining
peace and tranquility there.
ITBP has also been providing security cover to
the Indian Embassy at Kabul and Indian Consulates
at Jalalabad, Kandahar and Mazare- Sharif in Afghanistan.
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