SSB seeks 27 FM towers to check anti-India propaganda

NEW DELHI: In order to counter anti-India propaganda along the Nepal border, border guarding force SSB has asked the Union Home Ministry to sanction erection of over two dozen radio FM towers in some select pockets of this open frontier.

Sashastra Seema Bal chief B D Sharma, while addressing troops on the forces' 52nd Raising Day here, said its field units have reported messages detrimental to the country's interest being relayed in border areas and hence it has sought clearance to raise these towers which will be used to tackle "anti-India propaganda" at various locations along the 1,751 km-long frontier.

He said the field formations of the force and its headquarters here have identified a total of 27 such locations where FM radio towers could be erected.

While spelling out plans for the about 80,000 personnel- strong force, the DG said it will recruit over 2,700 women combatants over the next three years in consonance with the government's direction to increased representation of the fair sex in uniformed services.

He said women personnel will be recruited in various ranks as part of 21 new companies by 2017-18.

"The procedure in this regard has begun," Sharma said.

The SSB is credited for being the first border guarding force in the country to have inducted women constables in its ranks in 2008 and has about 700 combatants at present in various border guarding roles and for rendering various law and order tasks.

The DG also sought Home Ministry's clearance for its latest proposal for opening six new cultural centres in the border areas of Gangtok ( Sikkim), Tawang ( Arunachal Pradesh), Jaigaon ( West Bengal), Supaul ( Bihar), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Pithoragarh ( Uttarakhand).