Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 24

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), tasked with building and maintaining vital infrastructure in frontier areas, continues to be bogged down with serious shortage of manpower as well as specialised equipment.Though there has been some increase in the strength of BRO’s officer cadre in the past five years, it is still deficient by about 30 per cent. Against an authorisation of 1,851, the force at present has 1,336 officers. In 2012, the figure was 1,291. The strength of the subordinate staff, on the other hand, has come down in recent years. While the sanctioned strength of this cadre is 40,747, it has fallen from 35,026 in 2012 to 33,723 this year.Data compiled by the Ministry of Defence also reveals a huge shortage of equipment like dozers, tippers, crushers, pavers, mix plants, air compressors and road rollers, that are required for the essential works in BRO. For example, the force is holding only 25 per cent of its requirement for stone crushers and 47 per cent of its requirement for hot mix plants. Budgetary constraints and some financial guidelines and ceilings on expenditure issued by the Ministry of Finance are among factors that are affecting the procurement process as well as the pace of works in the BRO. There has been a consistent shortfall between demand and allocation over the years. For 2016-17, BRO has been allocated Rs 3,075.73 crore against the demand of Rs 5,044 crore.The MoD has taken up a case with the finance ministry that owing to its peculiar operating conditions, harsh terrain and climatic conditions, limited working season and other functional requirements, some of the financial guidelines common to other ministries should not be applicable to BRO.