New Delhi, June 30 : The home ministry wants the Assam Rifles, the country’s oldest paramilitary force that guards the Myanmar border, to be deployed for counter-insurgency operations in central India.
Ministry sources said a note was being prepared to be sent to the cabinet committee on security to push the proposal amid mounting CRPF casualties at the hands of Maoists.
“Why can’t we use the Assam Rifles? They are a paramilitary force so they can be used anywhere, not just the north-eastern region,” said a ministry source.
The call to re-deploy the force — described as “friends of the hill people” by an anthropologist — has coincided with a BSF projection of adding 40 more battalions to its existing 159 to replace the Assam Rifles at India’s eastern-most border.
“We are ready, that is all I can say,” said a BSF source, adding that the force would discuss the issue at its ongoing quarterly meeting.
Behind the call to re-deploy the Assam Rifles is the tussle between the home ministry and the defence ministry over who would control the force, which is headed by army officers and has 46 battalions under two divisions. Another 20-odd battalions are to be raised.
The re-deployment idea was floated after the home ministry proposed that 20 Assam Rifles battalions should guard the borders but under its control.
Defence minister A.K. Antony has apparently rejected Chidambaram’s proposal.
But Chidambaram is said to be determined to change the Assam Rifles charter of duty that has remained limited to the north-eastern region for more than a century now.
The defence ministry, however, is not ready to give up operational control over the force. “This duality has been a problem for years now and has to be sorted out,” said a senior home ministry official.
Although the force was brought under the administrative control of the home ministry after 1965, it remains under the operational command of the army.
So both ministries have to agree for any change of responsibilities for the force that can trace its lineage to a paramilitary police force formed under the British in 1835.