The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will have an extra squad of intelligence personnel for surveillance and information collecting at border stations along the Indo-China border from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh. According to a highly placed source, the central government has authorized a plan for the establishment of the Border Intelligence Post (BIP).

 

The move is significant in light of growing Chinese border actions and violations by China's People's Liberation Army. Since June 2020, the Indian Army and the PLA have been at odds in Ladakh. Each BIP would be manned by four to five Intelligence Bureau employees and safeguarded by ITBP soldiers, a source familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity. Personnel stationed at the BIPs will monitor actions across the border and provide reports to higher authorities and the government.

 

However, citing the project's sensitive nature, the source refused to provide the money sanctioned by the central government for it. Mago is the first hamlet near the Chinese border in the Chuna region of Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang district. Only in 2020 was an all-terrain motorable road developed in the village. The ITBP has around 180 border outposts (BOPs) along the entire India-China border, with the creation of 45 more recently sanctioned.

In June 2020, twenty Army personnel were killed in a skirmish with the PLA in Ladakh's Galwan Valley. On December 9, last year, PLA troops intruded in Yangste, Arunachal Pradesh, resulting in a fight between soldiers from the two countries and wounded on both sides. Because the India-China boundary is not entirely delineated, both sides perceive the Line of Actual Control (LAC) differently. There have been allegations of PLA forces often entering contested regions. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said at a ceremony here on Monday that a country is safe when its borders are protected.

"Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, not a single village remains inaccessible by vehicle. "These border communities were previously ignored."I also assure you that within the next six months, all border villages in Arunachal Pradesh will have 5G mobile phone connectivity," added Rijiju, who represents Arunachal West in the Lok Sabha.

The central government has not only increased its infrastructure at the LAC in recent years, but has also created initiatives for the development of border settlements. Among these is the Vibrant settlements Programme (VVP), which aims to improve certain border settlements holistically. "Arunachal Pradesh will develop the most villages of any state under the VVP."