National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on May 24 suggested the integration of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) on the lines of joint theatre commands in the armed forces.
Mr. Doval while speaking at the Investiture ceremony of the Border Security Force (BSF) said that “jointness (integration)” was required in CAPFs or the paramilitary and it was not only about saving money but also to bring in homogeneity in deployment whether it is “war or peace.”
He stressed that he was not suggesting the consolidation in capacity as an NSA but as a police officer.
“Should we go ahead and think about the jointness in our CPOs (Central Police Organisations/CAPFs) interoperability. We are a huge force now together, we have also got the same type of inter-mingling duties at many places, whether it is procurement, communication, training, standardisation. In defence forces it is being done, we are thinking of joint theatre command, one officer from the Air Force who is probably controlling both the army and the navy unit for the domain he specialises in. There it was more difficult, because their equipments and doctrines, command and control systems are different,” he said.
He added that in CAPFs the roles are similar.
“Whenever the requirements are there, in war or peace, we have to see if we have to deploy 30 battalions of CAPFs. At the borders it does not matter if BSF is not available, CRPF can also do the same thing. They have bene trained, their equipment and communication devices are same, even in a platoon, one section of CRPF and two BSF can be there, does not matter, they will march...similarly for internal security if something major has happened, whether we should be thinking of deploying them (BSF), it is just an idea,” he said.
The ten-lakh strong CAPFs comprise the BSF, CRPF, ITBP, CISF, SSB and Assam Rifles.
While the BSF is primarily deployed along the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders, since 2009 it is also posted in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is deployed for internal security duties and has large presence in North East, LWE theatre and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indo Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) is deployed along the China border.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) role is to guard government installations and is deployed at airports and metro rail, while the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has a presence along Nepal and Bhutan borders. The Assam Rifles mandate is to secure the border with Myanmar.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the National Security Guard (NSG) derive their strength from the CAPFs.
