Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 23

In a major organisational restructuring, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) will have two new command level formations, one for the western sector based at Chandigarh and the other for the eastern sector based at Guwahati.

The decision, along with accretion of new posts at the top level as part of the cadre review, was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

Two new posts of Additional Director General (ADG), equivalent to a Lieutenant General in the Army, have been sanctioned to head the new commands.

A total of 60 new posts in Group-A Executive General Duty Cadre and two posts in Group-A Non-General Duty Cadre at various levels from Assistant Commandant to ADG for enhancing the supervisory staff have been approved.

According to sources, Western Command will control the Dehradun-based Northern Frontier comprising of Shimla, Dehradun and Bareilly sectors and the North-West Frontier, recently moved from Chandigarh to Leh that comprises Srinagar and Ladakh sectors.

Western Command is expected to have 25 battalions while Eastern Command will have 19 battalions.

The ADG posted at Force Headquarters, Delhi, will have 12 battalions and four specialist battalions under his command.

At present, the force is divided into five frontiers that report directly to the Force Headquarters, along with other training, logistic and administrative establishments, through an additional director general based in Delhi.

The ITBP has a total strength of 56 service battalions and four specialist battalions, out of which 32 are deployed in border guarding duties, 11 in internal security and eight in anti-naxal operations.

The cadre review calls for increasing the existing structure of Group-A posts from 1,147 to 1,207 posts. Besides the new posts of ADG, it includes 10 new posts each at the level of Inspector General (IG) and Deputy Inspector General (DIG), 13 posts of Commandant, 16 posts of Second-in-Command, nine of Deputy Commandant and two posts of Inspector General in the non-general duty cadre.

The first cadre review of the force was held in 1988 when its strength was increased to 27,298. The second cadre review was held in 2001 and the strength was increased to 32,386. The present strength of the force is 89,429.

Presently, the ITBP has one sanctioned post of Director General (DG), who is the head of the force and one post of ADG at Force HQs in New Delhi.

There are 10 posts of Inspector General. The post of DG and ADG is filled by officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) on deputation. At the rank of IG, 50 per cent posts are filled by IPS officers whereas at the rank of DIG 80 per cent posts are filled by promotion of ITBP cadre officers.

LADY DEPUTY COMMANDANT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN ITBP BY CONSTABLE:NO ACTION TILL DATE BY AUTHORITIES