Two Reserve Battalions of Police are proposed to be raised exclusively for the youth living within ten kilometers along the International border (IB) as well as the Line of Control (LoC). In this connexion, the Union Home Ministry has accorded the necessary sanction paving the way for the recruitment of over 2000 border youth.
These two proposed battalions shall be wholly funded by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) expected to be raised at a cost of Rs. 105 crore. During the visit to Nowshera sector on the LoC in September 2017 by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, he had promised that courageous and valiant youth from the border belts of Jammu and Kashmir will be recruited in Police Battalions. The MHA was working on the proposal which stands approved and a formal decision to this effect has also been conveyed to the Jammu and Kashmir Government. It has, accordingly asked the State Government to set up the process in motion for raising of two reserve battalions, one each for Kashmir and Jammu regions. Both the battalions shall be having 1000 personnel from each division totaling a little over 2000. Financial outlay of Rs.105 crore has been approved for the two battalions.
It is fairly known to everyone how Pakistan is incessantly engaged in a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir and how border violations, as a matter of routine, are made by them. Regular shelling and unprovoked firing by Pakistani army and Rangers on the LoC for quite some time have been resulting in the loss of precious human lives of the security forces and the civilians besides damaging of crops , houses etc. Through these border violations, they provide cover and other logistics to the infiltrators while crossing the borders. Rough geographical terrains and porous borders, many a time, are breached by these terrorists. It is, however, not mandatory that these battalions were going to be deployed on the borders but their services could be utilized anywhere in the state and the current mechanism of defending of the borders would remain unchanged. In other words, the Army would remain deployed as front line force on the LoC and the BSF on the IB . The Jammu and Kashmir Police will keep on playing its role on the borders.
It is pertinent to note that for treating people as border dwellers, the criteria is that they should be living within a radius of five kilometers but the Home Ministry, relaxing the norms , has covered the youth of the areas falling within 10 kilometers from the IB and the LoC for being eligible for the recruitment criteria.
A time frame of two years is, within which the entire recruitment process is to be completed and the criteria for recruitment of the youth will be the same as is applicable to the Reserve Battalions. It is important to note that the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the State Government to keep it abreast of the developments in respect of raising of these two battalions and that complete transparency in the recruitment was to be maintained by the State Government.
Needless to add, International Border (IB) falls only in Jammu region covering three Districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua. The other border districts of Jammu region which shall be covered under the recruitment for Reserve Police Battalions are Rajouri and Poonch districts which share LoC with Pakistan.
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