Govt to replace Assam Rifles with BSF on Myanmar border

New Delhi: In a major decision, government has decided to replace the Assam Rifles (AR) with BSF for guarding the porous Indo-Myanmar border notorious for movement of insurgents and smuggling of arms and narcotics. The decision in this regard was recently taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs and a Cabinet note will be soon prepared to be sent for final approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), country's highest decision making body on security related issues.“An in-principle decision has been taken to hand over the security duties on Myanmar border to us,” BSF chief Subhash Joshi told PTI.The decision will entail an expenditure of crores of rupees for the BSF which has been approved by the Finance Ministry.Apart from the new responsibility of guarding the Indo-Myanmar border, the Border Security Force (BSF) is at present deployed on the frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh.According to the blueprint prepared in this regard, at least 40,000 BSF personnel will be deployed for the porous border.The AR, sources said, will be inducted into fresh roles to undertake counter-insurgency operations in other theatres. The BSF will start the process of recruiting new manpower for the task after the approval of the CCS headed by Prime Minister.A decision in this regard has been pending for many years after the GoM on Kargil advocated the theory of ‘one border, one force'. The new proposal entails the country's second largest paramilitary force to create posts right on the border as compared to AR posts which are much inside. India's border with China is guarded by another force ITBP while the borders with Nepal and Bhutan are guarded by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).India shares a 1,640 km-long border with Myanmar manned by Assam Rifles, and dense forests in most parts make the boundary porous and vulnerable.Most of the posts of Assam Rifles are located well inside Indian territory and only a handful of them are located near the zero line, which makes it easier for insurgents camping in Myanmar to sneak into India easily. Assam Rifles was entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the border with Myanmar in 2002 and at that time, the strength of the force was 30 battalions (1000 personnel in each battalion).Gradually, the strength of the force, which draws its strength from the Army, has been increased to 46 battalions. 20 more battalions are in the process of being raised by the force, which is the country's oldest paramilitary popularly called the ‘Cachar Levy'.