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Army raises issue of control over ITBP along Indo-China border

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 9/23/2014 12:42:01 PM

NEW DELHI, Sep 22: Against the backdrop of ongoing incursions by Chinese troops in Ladakh, the army has raked up the issue of bringing the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) under its operational control along the China border.
The matter, which was taken up at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, will be discussed by it in the coming days.
The Army raised the issue of bringing the ITBP, which is under Home Ministry's control, and road construction organisation BRO under its direct operational control along the Line of Actual Control, sources said.
The raising of the issue once again has come at a time when the Chinese Army has made intrusions well inside the Indian territory in the Chumar area and have refused to leave more than ten days after they came there, they said.
There is a view that ITBP and the BRO under a single organisation can reduce duplication of command and the issue is expected to be discussed by the Committee, sources said.
The issue has to be examined by other agencies including the Home Ministry and cannot be decided in a haste merely on demands made by the army, they said.
The Army has been demanding that ITBP be placed under its operational control for better and coordinated border management along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
The Home Ministry has been against this demand which feels that the ITBP does the border guarding job well in peacetime. The force automatically comes under the operational command of the Army during times of war.
The ITBP has around 17 of its battalions deployed along the LAC with China from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast.