ITBP deputes first officer to head eastern command along LAC

 The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the LAC with China, has posted its first officer to head the newly-created Guwahati-based eastern command that oversees deployment of border battalions in that region.

Additional Director General Amrit Mohan Prasad, posted at the ITBP headquarters here, has been transferred and posted as the ADG of the eastern command, an order issued on Tuesday by the force said.

The command, as per details accessed by PTI, overlooks ITBP battalions posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in states like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Assam with frontiers at Itanagar (northeast) and Lucknow (east) and sector offices at Likabali, Tezpur, Dibrugarh, Gangtok, among others.

The command in Assam's capital Guwahati also supervises ITBP battalions deployed for anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh.

Some officers, sub-officers and administrative staff were earlier posted by the force to operationalise the command but the posting of the top officer was delayed, official sources said.

The mountain-warfare trained force had similarly posted an officer (in the Inspector General-rank) in June to head its western command located in Chandigarh that has control over battalions deployed along the LAC in Ladakh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The two ADG-rank headed commands were sanctioned by the Union government in October last year for better operational functioning of the about 35-38 battalions of the force deployed at the LAC, starting from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh along the eastern front.

The ITBP posts at this icy front are located at altitudes ranging from 9,000-18,700 feet.

Earlier, the border deployments of the force were headed by IG-rank officers at various frontier locations.

The new commands will streamline operations, intelligence, deployment and administrative movements of ITBP personnel to the border regions and also bring better synergy with the Army that secures the LAC, a senior official had said earlier.

India and China currently have an ongoing standoff between their militaries in the Ladakh region.

The ITBP, with an estimated manpower of 90,000 personnel, had bolstered its presence all along the 3,488-km-long LAC post these developments.

"The force is undertaking short and long patrols in the border areas, including with Army personnel, at some locations," a senior officer said.

Last year, the force was also sanctioned two more ADG posts after its cadre restructuring and Prasad, a 1989-batch Indian Police Service officer of the Odisha cadre, was deputed with the ITBP in August this year.

The Centre has also promoted 1990-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre ITBP Inspector General Daljit Singh Chawdhary on Tuesday to the post of ADG.

He has been posted as an ADG at the ITBP headquarters.  The third ADG-rank officer will be from the ITBP officers' cadre and the orders for promotion and appointment of the eligible officer are expected to be issued by the government soon, they said.