The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is expected to take up tomorrow the proposal of handing over security duties of the Myanmar border to BSF replacing Assam Rifles.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has prepared an exhaustive plan in this regard and according to the blueprint, Border Security Force (BSF) will require 41 battalions (about 41,000 personnel) and an estimated expenditure of about Rs 5,000 crore to deploy its troops along the 1,640 km-long border, most parts of which have dense forests making the frontier porous and vulnerable.
The CCS is the country's highest decision-making body on security-related matters.
The MHA had taken an "in-principle" decision in this regard recently and has also gone through a presentation prepared in this regard by the paramilitary.
A decision to hand over security duties on this border is pending for many years after the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Kargil advocated its 'one border, one force' theory.
The proposal entails the country's second largest paramilitary force BSF to create posts right on the border in an area marked by dense forests and difficult terrain.
Most of the existing posts of Assam Rifles are located well inside Indian territory and only a handful of them are located near the zero line, which makes it easier for insurgents camping in Myanmar to sneak into India.
Assam Rifles was entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the border with Myanmar in 2002.
