Why it is in news?

• ITBP raises maiden mechanised column for quick deployment of troops along the India-China border in case of Doklam-like standoffs

 Details

• For the first time in its over 50-year history, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is raising and deploying a mechanised column of power vehicles and machines.
• Aim is to quickly mobilise troops along the India-China border during Chinese military transgressions and Doklam-like standoffs.
• The Union Home Ministry recently approved deployment of snow scooters at all high-altitude border outposts of the mountain-warfare trained force along the 3,488-km-long frontier it guards.
• The mechanised column of the force will comprise over 250 sports utility vehicles (SUVs), all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snow scooters, excavators and a few other medium-lift four-wheeled vehicles.

Rationale

• ITBP secures the border in peacetime and will bear the first onslaught in case of a war or a conflict.
• Till now, only the Border Security Force that guards the India-Pakistan border had an artillery unit and some mechanised components to aid it.
• The force has about 30 border posts above the height of 15,000 feet and some 50 such posts above 12,000 feet and the Home Ministry has accorded sanctions to the ITBP to have at least one snow scooter at each of these frontier bases.
•  The force has also been given sanctions to upgrade its firepower by modernising the support weapons like 81mm mortars.

 What is mechanized infantry

• Mechanized infantry are infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs) or infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) for transport and combat
• The support weapons for mechanized infantry are also provided with motorized transport, or they are built directly into combat vehicles to keep pace with the mechanized infantry in combat. 

ITBP

• The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is one of the five Central Armed Police Forces of India, raised on 24 October 1962, under the CRPF Act, in the wake of the Sino-Indian War of 1962.
• The ITBP was intended for deployment along India's border with China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
• In September 1996, the Parliament of India enacted the "Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force Act, 1992" to "provide for the constitution and regulation" of the ITBP "for ensuring the security of the borders of India and for matters connected therewith"
• ITBP is a multi-dimensional force which primarily has 5 functions:
  1. Vigil on the northern borders, detection and prevention of border violations, and promotion of the sense of security among the local populace.
  2. Check illegal immigration and trans-border smuggling
  3. Provide security to sensitive installations and threatened VIPs
  4. Restore and preserve order in any area in the event of disturbance
  5. to maintain the peace