Sashastra Seema Bal
The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) is a paramilitary police
force under the Ministry of Home affairs responsible for guarding India’s
international borders with Nepal and Bhutan. it was created in 1963, it was
called Special Services Bureau. The name was changed to Sashatra Seema Bal in
2001 after it was given charge of the Nepal border. . It is one of India’s
Central Armed Police Forces, which includes ITBP, BSF, CRPF and CISF.
In the wake of the Chinese conflict in 1962, it was felt
that the borders of the country could not be protected with the force of rifles
alone. It required the backing .And also, In addition, it needed an in-depth
understanding and familiarity of the terrain as well as the culture and ethos
of the border population. therefore, Indian Army realized for the creation of a unique,
unconventional , specialized organization, which would function in the far,
flung, vulnerable, strategic, remote, climatically and topographically
difficult border areas.
Thus Indian strategic think tank conceived a plan to raise
a force that will would train the local border population in guerilla tactics
and instill in them a sense of security.
In any situation, the local border population along with
SSB personnel, would employ guerilla tactics and make use of weapons already
cached in secret locations to harass the enemy force.
The Special Service Bureau (now Sashastra Seema Bal) was
thus conceived in November 1962 and eventually created in March 1963 with the
sole objective of achieving ‘Total security preparedness’ in the remote border
areas for performing a ‘stay-behind’ role in the event of a war.
Shri B N Mullik took over as the first founder Director of
Special Service Bureau and led the force from the front as the initial years
were fraught with apprehensions on the prospects of another Chinese attack. The
magnitude of responsibilities was such that each officer had to be constantly
reassured of the value of his work in his own area of responsibility.
Post Kargil conflict, the Indian government, decided to
implement one border, one force policy. Meanwhile, the advent of Maoist
activities in neighbouring Nepal and the likelihood of anti-national elements
trying to infiltrate the Nepal border, the Indian government decided to deploy
a people-friendly force on the Indo-Nepal border so that the relations with
Nepal are not jeopardised.
SSB was started in North Assam, North Bengal, hill
districts of Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand), Himachal Pradesh, part of Punjab
and Ladakh area of J&K.
Later, the jurisdiction of SSB was extended to Manipur,
Tripura and Jammu (1965), Meghalaya (1975), Sikkim (1976), Rajasthan (1985),
South Bengal, Nagaland and Mizoram (1989). Its area of coverage included
15 states.
In 2001, SSB was given the charge of managing the Nepal border and in 2004, the Bhutan border. The more than 1800 km of open border with Nepal is inhabited by people who have had close “Roti- Beti” relationship since centuries.
The
area covered by SSB was distributed into 10 SSB Divisions, each headed by a
Divisional Commissioner, 49 Areas headed by Area Organisers, 117 Sub Areas
headed by Sub Area Organisers and 287 Circles headed by Circle Organisers.
These units were key centres, coordinating and supervising all activities to
fulfill their respective obligations. It also had 25 battalions of combatised
personnel that provided arms training to volunteers who formed the core of the
armed village resistance, in case of another war. These personnel were spread
out across 32 Group Centres, 14 Training Centres and 3 Storage Depots. Training
Schools were set up in various parts of the country starting with Frontier
Administrative Officers’ Training Centre at Mahabaleshwar in October, 1963.
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