The extension in territorial jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) in some states is aimed at empowering the border force to discharge its border guarding duties more effectively, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
"The extension in the territorial jurisdiction of BSF in some states is aimed at empowering the BSF to discharge its border guarding duties more effectively in the wake of the use of technology like Dynamic Remotely Operated Navigation," Mr Rai said.
In November, BSF had said the enhanced jurisdiction will help the force strengthen the hands of the police.
"The enhanced jurisdiction will help BSF to strengthen the hands of the police. This is an enabling provision that is aimed at strengthening and complementing the efforts of the state police. BSF has been acting in close coordination with police to conduct joint operations including joint depth area patrolling, deploying joint nakas, etc. and establishing of anti-human trafficking units at different places along the Indo-Bangladesh border," said the statement issued by the BSF.
The Centre had in October empowered the BSF to conduct searches, arrest suspects and make seizures up to an area of 50 km inside Indian territory from the International Border along the India-Pakistan and India-Bangladesh borders.
The BSF, which was only empowered to take action up to 15 kilometres in Punjab, West Bengal, and Assam earlier, has now been authorised to extend its jurisdiction up to 50 km without any hurdle or permission either from central or state governments.
However, its jurisdiction has been cut short by 20 km in the five northeastern states -- Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, and Meghalaya -- where it had jurisdiction up to 80 km. Similarly in Gujarat, the BSF's jurisdiction has been curtailed from 80 to 50 km. In Rajasthan, the BSF's area of jurisdiction will remain the same at 50 km.
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