M A I N   N E W S

GoM moots border fencing
Submits report to Prime Minister
S. Satyanarayanan
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 26
The report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the feasibility of recommendations made by the Kargil review committee headed by Mr K. Subrahmanyam, has recommended the fencing of the entire Indo-Pakistan border along the Line of Control (LoC) and the creation of a post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to have direct liaison with the Prime Minister on sensitive national security issues.

According to highly-placed sources, the report submitted to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee here this evening by Union Home Minister L.K. Advani, has also recommended the creation of a separate department on border management, besides bringing the Special Services Bureau (SSB) — a counter aggression and intelligence gathering force deployed in remote villages on the Sino-Indian border — under the Ministry of External Affairs.

The 137-page report has suggested the use of Israeli technology and cat wiring for fencing the borders to check infiltration from Pakistan and the occupied Kashmir (PoK).

This is on the line of the recommendation made by the task force on border management, headed by former Home Secretary Madhav Godbole.

As far the CDS, the sources said the report had recommended that the CDS’ post should go to the seniormost of the three services chiefs.

As of now, the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sushil Kumar, is senior to his counterparts in the Army and Air Force.

The GoM, set up in April 2000 to review the national security system, under the chairmanship of the Home Minister, included the Defence Minister, the External Affairs Minister, the Finance Minister and the National Security Adviser as special invitee.

While the Kargil Review Committee (KRC) was required to review the events leading up to the Pakistani aggression in Kargil and to recommend measures necessary to safeguard national security against such armed intrusions, the GoM was required to review the national security system in its entirety and, in particular, to consider the recommendations of the KRC as well as formulate specific proposals for implementation.

In order to facilitate its work, the GoM had set up four task forces — on intelligence apparatus, on internal security, on border management and on management of defence.

The task force reports, totalling nearly 1300 pages in all, were received by the GoM by end-September, 2000. They were, thereafter, referred to the administrative ministries concerned for their comments and these along with the task force recommendations were processed in several Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) meetings chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.