Govt sanctions 7,000 troops to BSF for Pak, B'desh borders

The Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the country's volatile border with Pakistan, will raise six new battalions comprising around 7,000 personnel, official sources said today.
The Ministry of Home Affairs also sanctioned an amount of Rs 2,090.94 crore to the force. The new battalions will also be deployed along the smuggling and infiltration prone India-Bangladesh border.
The troops will be recruited fresh by the force, to be deployed as part of the six battalions. They will be on the ground in over an year's time, the sources said.
Each BSF battalion has over 1,000 jawans and officers.
The home ministry, the sources said, had on January 19 approved the proposal of the force to raise these fresh battalions and asked the BSF headquarters here to quickly initiate the process of operationalising them.

Four battalions, as per the order, will be raised as part of the forces' task of guarding eight Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) along Pakistan and Bangladesh, while the rest two will supplement the working units on the ground and help in the replacement of the tired troops.