Security forces to get wherewithal

Home Minister P Chidambaram’s second day in the ministry saw bureaucrats making desperate calls to the headquarters of the security forces asking them to re-send the list of basic wherewithal, which they had been asking for years to fight the terrorists effectively and for surveillance of the border.

“They have asked us for files on the Hoover aircraft, which, we had been sending to the Ministry of Home Affairs each since 1996,” said a senior officer in the Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the borders with Pakistan, Bangladesh and is carrying out anti-insurgency operations in the north-eastern states.

The BSF needs Hoover aircraft to monitor the Sir Creek, a marshland in the Gujarat border that is taken as a route by the terrorists and smugglers from Pakistan. “Looks like we may get it now finally,” said the officer.

As Chidambaram held his first meeting with the chiefs of the Central Police Organisations (CPO) like the BSF, Central Security Force, Sahastra Suraksha Bal (SSB), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), security forces are optimistic of getting attention in the light of focus on the anti-terror mechanism after the Mumbai terror strikes.

The BSF, for example, needs basics like effective anti-mosquito repellent to costly items like the aircraft to keep check on intruders. Four of BSF personnel have died of malaria in Mizoram in the last one year, while scores of the personnel have fallen sick of the insect bite.

“We have been using the improvised veils made of mosquito nets during operations to protect our jawans from falling sick,” a senior officer said.

More interestingly, the BSF, which possesses six helicopters for surveying the Rann of Kutch border in Gujarat, is left with just one of these. “Five of these choppers are virtual white elephants for their high maintenance cost and have been grounded. The remaining one is often used by the ministry,” said an officer.

However, after Chidambaram took charge of the home ministry and the focus on fighting terrorism, the force has again sent its requirements to the government.

The list includes demands as petty as special wire to augment the border fence, which, the terrorists and intruders had been snapping with sophisticated made-in-China cutters, to latest versions of the night vision devices, deep metal detectors, thermal imaging cameras, all-terrain vehicles (to man shallow sea waters), and the fast attack craft (boats).

This apart, the BSF and the CRPF, which have been in the forefront of the anti-terrorist fight all through, have been facing severe shortage of manpower. “We need to raise 60 battalions immediately for effective manning of the border,” sources said.