Security restrictions in border areas revised

The Defence Ministry has issued fresh guidelines easing security restrictions in border areas by superseding the Security Restrictions Guidelines issued by it in 1990.

Key Highlights:

• Under the new rules, restrictions have been lifted for works like construction, repair and maintenance of village ponds, construction and maintenance of government buildings like schools and hospitals.
• It has allowed developmental work of small nature to be carried out by the central or state governments’ statutory bodies for faster development in the border areas.

Significance:

The need for new guidelines was felt, as the earlier restrictions were restrictive in nature towards developmental activities near border areas and were not fully facilitating in developmental works of small nature in the border areas.

The construction works in the border areas were getting affected due to provisions listed in the Defence Ministry’s existing guidelines. Hence, the state governments put forward requests to the centre to consider revision of the guidelines.

Sources: the hindu.