Govt to build 50 more outposts along India-China border: Rajnath

New Delhi, Oct 24: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the government is mulling to build 50 more Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) posts along India-China border. Presently there are 176 border posts along the Sino-India border. Addressing a function on the 56th Raising Day of the ITBP here, Mr Singh said, "Currently, we have received a proposal to build 50 new border posts for the force and we are working on it. Besides, 35 old border posts are being upgraded as composite units in very high-altitude areas. To monitor Indian borders from the sky, the Ministry of Home Affairs has made ITBP the nodal agency for the use of G-SAT communication and surveillance satellites, said ITBP Director General (DG) RK Pachnanda. Mr Pachnanda also added that the Home Ministry has also approved the ITBP’s proposal to hire helicopters for high-altitude border posts. The Union Home Minister has also said that in order to ensure that a temperature of at least 20 degrees Celsius is maintained in all high-altitude ITBP posts, the government is considering to introduce a technology soon. Mr Singh asked ITBP officials to take responsibility of at least one family of personnel killed in the line of duty. "Those jawans who have suffered 50 per cent disability during operations through the Bharat Ke Veer benevolent fund, the Ministry has also geared up to help those personnel", Mr Singh said. Announcing various measures, Mr Singh said that include construction of 25 border roads in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh; special lightweight winter clothing for troops deployed above 9,000 feet and an enhanced fleet of snow scooters to patrol the high-altitude areas of the 3,488-km-long Sino-Indian frontier. "ITBP personnel are now learning Chinese during their basic training", added Mr Singh. UNI