Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to raise seven further ITBP hosts, launch a vibrant village scheme and clear the Shinkun La lair are a three-rounded move to swarm the Indian defences along the LAC and counter President Xi Jingping’s Fortress Tibet Policy.
The three opinions taken by PM Modi are connected and are an answer to the three-league border security organised by the PLA in the western theatre command in Tibet and Xinjiang. Just as China has come up with border townlets with border guards, quarter police and PLA reserve in the depth areas, the decision to raise seven hosts of ITBP (8400 men approx) means that India will also have a three league arrangement on the LAC like the LoC with Pakistan with BSF forming the frontal line.
As part of “one border one force” policy, the 3488 km LAC will now have some 56 battalions stationed against China as the frontier force backed by original Indian Army conformations and also the Army reserve.
This means barring eight ITBP hosts stationed in anti-Naxal duties and as part of the force rotational drill the border force will purely concentrate on the LAC as this is the introductory purpose for which the mountain force was raised in the first place. The ITBP is a technical mountain force stationed in border countries on heights further than 12000 feets and sub-zero temperatures.
And since the reclamation of the fresh hosts will be done from each over India including border countries of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh UT, this will give original youth incitement to stay put in their townlets rather than move to big metropolises in hunt of jobs.
The recently raised hosts will be responsible for 47 border posts, with one in Ladakh, another in Uttarakhand and the remaining in the sensitive Arunachal Pradesh sector.In order to provide food, oil painting, weapons, and security to the manned border checkpoints, a sector headquarter would be built in Arunachal Pradesh under the direction of a DIG rank officer.
New staging camps will also be established at rarefied altitudes. Dovetailed into this caregiving of ITBP battalions to plug security gaps on the Arunachal Pradesh border is the ₹4800 crore Vibrant Village Scheme, which will fund nearly ₹2500 crore into furnishing last afar connectivity to the border townlets so that the youth get economic employment through tourism and trade.
This decision of PM Modi is pathbreaking as public security itineraries set up that youth were leaving the border townlets and coming to metropolises for employment as a result of which the first line of LAC defence was weakened.
The third decision which will bolster the border defence of both the LAC and the factual Ground Position Line (AGPL) with Pakistan in Siachen Glacier and further is the decision to have a all rainfall connectivity axis from Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh via Manali-Atal Lair-Darcha-Shinkun La lair-Padum-Nimu axis.
This road and lair adjoined by Zanskar on the west and Himalayas on the east can not be targeted by adversary ordnance or rockets and will come the main confluent route for the Indian Army to emplace on both borders. The coming step for the government would be to clear the 12 kilometre lair under Saser La inSub-Sector North to get alternate road connectivity to Daulet Beg Oldi if the being Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road comes under fire from the PLA in the worst case script.
The new converts at Se La, Nechiphu in Tawang sector and the sanctioned bones in Ladakh sector won’t only design dominance of the Indian Army but also allow briskly untoward deployment in the worst case scenario.
Prime Minister Modi’s opinions are an ocean change from the once century when border roads weren’t encouraged lest the Chinese Army walks in. The decision to ameliorate border road structure was taken by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government despite reservations from the Indian Army.