Recently, at an unscheduled briefing during Parliament session, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar released details of the government’s projects on border infrastructure and connectivity. It focused on initiatives in the north and east along India’s 3,488 km border with China.
Strategies for border management in India –
- Approach and practices of border management vary from one border to another, based on the security perceptions and relationship with the neighbouring country.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is responsible for border management.
- The strategy to deal with border security challenges involves —
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- The management of international land & coastal borders
- Strengthening of border policing & guarding
- Creation of border infrastructure such as roads, fencing & floodlighting of the borders as well as the strengthening of coastal security infrastructure
- Development of Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) on the land borders of the country
- Implementation of the Border Area Development Programme (BADP)
Various schemes for border management –
- Border Infrastructure and Management (BIM) Scheme —
- It is a Central Sector Scheme comprising of projects aimed at infrastructure development & to enhance the security of India’s international borders.
- It is being implemented by Border Management-I Division under MHA.
- Example — Border Fence, Border Roads, Border Floodlights, Border Out Posts (BOPs), Helipads and foot tracks along the international borders of the country.
- It also involves deployment of technological solutions in such patches of the borders, which are not feasible for physical fence.
- Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) —
- CIBMS has been conceptualised to integrate manpower, sensors, networks, intelligence and command control solutions.
- It aims to improve situational awareness at different levels of hierarchy to facilitate prompt and quick response to emerging situations along the India-Pakistan Border (IPB) and India-Bangladesh Border (IBB).
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