By IANS,
Agartala : Though the western and northern borders of India have become challenging, the security forces are ready to face any challenge and are adopting new strategies to deal with them, BSF chief Subhash Joshi said here Friday.
“With the challenges coming up in the western and northern borders of India, the BSF (Border Security Force) and the army are ready to deal with any situation,” Joshi told reporters.
He said: “We have new strategies and new plan to tackle any challenge from across the border. We are confident to deal with any eventualities.
“However, we would not discuss about these strategies and plan with the media.”
The BSF chief said that India has resources and motivation to face any challenge and threat from across the border.
An IPS officer of 1976 batch of Uttarakhand cadre, Joshi, who in his maiden two-day tour came here Friday, said that the situation in India’s eastern border with Bangladesh is improving.
“However, our vigil along the 4,095 km India-Bangladesh border would be further tightening.”
“The BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh) is very cooperative. We have regular interactions with them at various levels,” Joshi said, adding that the next director general level meeting between the BSF and BGB would be held in New Delhi next month to discuss the pending issues.
According to Joshi, 95 percent of the India-Bangladesh borders have been fenced so far and the works for the remaining portion are being progressing.
“To get better vigilance on the borders with Bangladesh, a large number of BSF BOPs (Border Out Posts) would be relocated and would be set up in the strategic locations. Getting suitable land to relocate and to set up the new BOPs is a problem.”
“Currently, the BSF has 1,000 women troopers. In the next two to three years the BSF would have three percent women personnel out of the total strength,” said Joshi, who has earlier served as director general of elite commando force National Security Guard.
The current strength of the BSF is 159 battalions comprising 2,22,000 troopers.
During his stay in Tripura, the BSF supremo met Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Chief Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda and senior security and BSF officials besides visiting the trouble-torn frontiers.
During his visit to the Akhaurah border, near here, the BSF chief distributed sweets among the BGB jawans guarding other side of the Bangladesh border.
Joshi would interact with the BSF jawans Saturday and supervise the ongoing works of border fencing during his trip to the bordering areas.