The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is not expected to be assigned any task related to internal security in the near future as more than 60 companies of the paramilitary force are being deployed all along the LAC in the backdrop of the recent standoff with China in Ladakh, officials said on Tuesday.
Sources in the security establishment said the force is also set to get sanctions from the Union Home ministry to raise at least nine fresh battalions soon.
They said in order to bolster troop numbers along the 3,488 kms long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, as many as 60 companies have been ordered to move towards the front in various areas like Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Out of the 60, about 40 companies have already reached border battalion camps in various states and the troops are undergoing acclimatisation and COVID-19 quarantine before they are sent to forward bases, they said.
These units have been withdrawn from various internal security duties that they were rendering across the country, officials added.
The ITBP is not expected to be drafted in any internal security duty in the near future like law and order duties to aid state police, deployment during various festivals and also for conduct of Bihar Assembly polls scheduled later this year as their maximum presence is required in the frontier areas of the LAC, they said.
With the recent sanction of two new commands to the ITBP at Chandigarh (western command) and Guwahati (eastern command) the force needs more manpower.
A plan for grant of about 8-9 fresh battalions (with an operational strength of 1,000 people) to the force is under consideration of the Union Home ministry and a decision is expected soon, they said.
At present, the ITBP has about 34 border battalions at 180 posts along the Chinese LAC.