Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 24

In a major policy shift, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) has done away with deploying battalions on a rotational basis in anti-Naxal operations. Instead, battalions already deployed in the anti-Naxal role will now become a permanent fixture and personnel will be transferred in an out on an individual basis.

The rotation change over (RCO) of two battalions deployed in Chhattisgarh, which was due in May, has been cancelled, sources said. Orders to this effect were passed by the ITBP Director General SS Deswal on April 23, after a series of discussions with the force’s top brass, sources said. The tenure of a battalion in anti-Naxal operations was three years.

From now on, no ITBP battalion will be earmarked for anti-Naxal operations. The RCO of battalions was being planned and executed by the Operations Directorate at ITBP Headquarters. The task of handling individual postings has been passed on to the Personnel Directorate and is expected to be handled in the same manner as other transfers in the force across all hierarchical levels, though the tenure mandated for individuals posted to such areas will be adhered to.

The new policy has some semblance with the Army’s Rashtriya Rifles (RR) that is deployed in anti-terrorist role in Jammu and Kashmir. Unlike most regular Army battalions that move after a stipulated tenure at a station, an RR battalion has a fixed location and only the troops from different regiments to which an RR battalion is affiliated with, are rotated.

The ITBP, which is responsible for the peace-time management of the border with China, has 56  service battalions, four specialist  battalions, seven logistics  establishments and 17 training  centres. Out of the 56 service battalions, 32 are deployed for border guarding, 11 in internal security and eight in anti-Naxal operations. The remaining five are reserved for rest and recuperation. Elements of the force also provide security to sensitive installations, banks and persons at security risk.

Battalions that were deployed in anti-Naxal operations underwent a collective pre-induction training so that they were oriented for the specific task that was vastly different from border guarding duties.

The new policy will have an impact on the training methodology. The ITBP’s Training Directorate has been directed to evolve a new mechanism for imparting necessary training to personnel being transferred to battalions located in the anti-Naxal theatre. The ITBP has a structured training programme for such deployments and is conducted by its Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School.