By no means has threat reduced: Army chief Naravane on Ladakh row

Naravane also said that the Army's inquiry report into December 4 Nagaland incident is expected to come out in a day or two

Indian Army Chief Gen M M Naravane on Wednesday said though the threats along the disputed Sino-Indian boundary have not reduced, the force is in a better position to deal with such threats due to additional manpower, improved border infrastructure, connectivity as well as better availability of military hardware.

“While there has been partial disengagement (on the Line of Actual Control), the threat (from the People’s Liberation Army) has by no means reduced. Force levels, in areas where disengagement is yet to take place, have been adequately enhanced," he said.

"We have inducted 25,000 additional troops in that area. We are building roads, tunnels and bridges. We have built a facility for the storage of ammunition and FOL (fuel, oil and lubricants) dumps. Lots of efforts have been made in the last one year because of which we are in a better position to meet any challenge in future,” General Naravane said at a press conference ahead of Army Day.

Referring to the 14th round of Corps Commander level talks being held between the PLA and Indian Army, he said mutual dis-engagement took place at several locations at the LAC due to joint efforts and more such developments might happen in future.

But upgradation and development of infrastructure along the northern border continues. This includes roads and tunnels for all weather connectivity, strategic railway lines, additional bridges across the Brahmaputra, upgradation of bridges on critical Indo-China Border Roads, and storage for supplies, fuel and ammunition.

A major effort has been undertaken to identify dual use infrastructure that can be exploited by the civil administration as well as the armed forces.

Asserting that Indian troops continue to keep a close eye on the PLA developments, he said, “Threat assessment and internal deliberations, have resulted in re-organisation and re-alignment of forces, in keeping with the Army’s mandate, of ensuring territorial integrity, and to cater for the major augmentation of PLA forces, and military infrastructure.”

Gen Naravane admitted that force augmentation along the northern border earlier happened on a smaller scale but there has been a major rebalancing in the last few years.

On the December 4 incident of soldiers opening fire on Indian citizens in Nagaland's Mon, the Chief said the Army panel investigating the incident would submit its report in a day or two. The guilty would be punished and the SOP would be modified based on the report.

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