The Army has red-flagged a proposal by the Home Ministry to bring the Assam Rifles under its operational control, saying such a move will seriously jeopardise surveillance over the country’s sensitive border with China when it has been ramping up military infrastructure along the frontiers with India.

Top military sources said concerned over the proposal, the Army strongly took up the issue with the Defence Ministry last week, urging it to intervene in the matter, considering the possible national security implications if the operational control of the nearly 185-year-old Assam Rifles was handed over to the Home Ministry.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is likely to examine the Home Ministry’s move to merge the Assam Rifles with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and bring overall operational control under it.

“Shifting the operational control of the Assam Rifles from the Army to the Home Ministry will severely jeopardise the surveillance along the Line of Actual Control with China,” a top military official said. Sources said the Army’s views on the matter had been conveyed to the top defence and security brass.

The Home Ministry has already prepared a draft note to be presented at the CCS seeking total control of Assam Rifles. The biggest concern for the Army is that this could impact the Army’s capability to effectively guard the sensitive border with China.

“The Assam Rifles fills the void when Army units carry forward the battle to the enemy territory. This is the only genuine paramilitary force which actively participated in all wars since Independence, including the 1962 and 1971 wars,” said a senior Army official. — PTI

50,000-personnel defence line 

• The nearly 55,000-strong Assam Rifles, with 46 battalions, has been guarding India’s border with Myanmar
• It has been providing operational & logistics support to Army in keeping vigil in key sectors in Arunachal
• It has also been carrying out counter-insurgency operations in militancy-hit North Eastern region
• At present, Home Ministry has administrative authority over Assam Rifles and the Army its operational control