New Delhi: Around 1,800 non-combat personnel of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which guards the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan border, will be moved to the Intelligence Bureau in a month, officials said on Tuesday.
The move is part of the Centre's plan to bolster the Intelligence Bureau's presence at the borders, the officials said.
Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Director General SS Deswal said the proposal to use trained men and women in the central intelligence set up has seen the light of the day after many years and these personnel of the "civil wing" will be deployed to "gather intelligence" under the command of the IB.
"The civil wing (of the SSB) is professionally-competent in intelligence-gathering, and their task and capability was matching with the IB and the government has decided to transfer them to the IB. The process has already started and, in next one month, a total of 1,800 people will be transferred to the IB," Deswal said, while talking to reporters on the occasion of the paramilitary force's 55th raising day.
A senior official later said it was expected that these personnel would be tasked to look after the intelligence duties along the China and Nepal fronts.
Earlier, it was reported in October that an order had been issued in this context by the Union home ministry, which had directed that a total of 2,104 posts of the SSB's civilian component, often dubbed as the "dying" cadre, would be transferred to the IB "immediately". Few of these posts are not occupied at present.
This manpower of the civil wing of the SSB is termed as "dying" as it does not have any substantial promotional and work avenues after the SSB was declared an armed force in 2001. Last year, the SSB was sanctioned a full-fledged intelligence wing which is manned by combat personnel.
The move was in the making for the past few years after National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval had, in June 2016, written to the then home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, underlining the need to effectively utilise this manpower for "enhancing" border security gathering better intelligence.