The Border Security Force (BSF), considered to be the first line of country’s defence, which guards the borders of Pakistan and Bangladesh frontiers faces burning issues like man power crisis, lack of proper training of troops, their rest, relief and motivation, according to an internal report prepared by the border guarding agency.
“The burning issue is manpower crisis at the border, lack of proper training of troops, rest and relief, and motivation”, the internal report said adding the issues required to be addressed on ‘a war footing or else organization will face serious consequences, sooner or later”.
The report said that the old culture of physical training (PT), playing games, taking proper rests and scopes for entertainment of the security forces have reduced considerably, which gave rise to many problems in the organization.
The BSF was raised mainly to guard the border, but also deployed for any duty anywhere in the country like “elections duties, IS duties, CI ops duties, VIP security duties anywhere in the country. But for that purpose reserve battalions should be raised so that forces are not withdrawn from border”.
“War time task of BSF is bit clear and since in 1965 most of the officers who were part of BSF were from Indian army and they introduced training standards equivalent to that of Infantry units of Indian army. This aspect of militarization was essential in order to handle minor skirmishes on the borders and also to supplement the efforts of defence forces during the war situation. We have to integrate the Indian army during the war”, the report said.
The report said, “Since the training standards were excellent earlier we did exceedingly well in 1971 liberation war and independence of Bangladesh, fighting militancy in Punjab and extremism in Jammu and Kashmir.
Later on we diluted the standards of our training over the years and the first causality was collective training where the duration was reduced and now there is virtually no collective training at all.
The Government of India had set up a committee of group of ministers in the backdrop of the Kargil conflict, which recommended that the border guarding forces need to be distinguished from other Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF) and Central Police Organization because of their distinctive functions.
“Frequent withdrawal of Border guarding forces to deal with the internal disturbance, law and order duties, and counter insurgency operations limits their capabilities to guard the border effectively.
A lot of importance has also been given to co-ordination of border area intelligence, improvement of the infrastructure along borders including strengthening of fencing and integration of modern technology in border guarding. A lot of emphasis has also been placed on involvement of the border guarding forces in Border Area Development Programme”.
The report said that the women cops in the force have to do the equal jobs at par with their male colleagues as they get the equal salary.
“Women in large number have joined the organization. They should be now ready to do the duties what here male colleagues do as she draws equal pay., equal pay means equal job and we as commanders should not indulge in gender bias, therefore if a man is supposed to go ahead of fencing in the night for duties , the women should also be expected to do that”.
It said, illegal migration from Bangladesh continued for last six decades as a result of which about 20 million Bangladeshis are living in India illegally and the border guarding agency have to own the responsibilities.
“We are yet to fully wake up to the implications of unchecked immigration for national security. Today we have about 20 million Bangladeshis living in India….generations will blame us for not doing our job properly and we are directly responsible for illegal settlers in our country”, it said.
Pic taken from Open source. Internet
