New Delhi, Apr 6 (IANS): The budgetary allocation for the Indo-China border has been increased to six times in the current fiscal under the Border Infrastructure and Management (BIM), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Responding to a question asked by BJP MP Dilip Saikia, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that the funds allocated for the security of border areas of the North East states have been utilised within the stipulated time frame.

Listing out the funds allocated under BIM, he said the MHA has increased BIM funds for the Indo-China border areas from Rs 42.87 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 249.12 crore in 2021-22 that is nearly around six times higher than the last year while the fund for 2019-20 was Rs 72.20 crore.

The government also allocated Rs 20 crore for the Indo-Myanmar border in the year 2019-2020 which has been reduced to Rs 17 crore in 2020-21 but it was again increased around three times to Rs 50 crore in the 2021-22, he added.

Rai further said that for the Indo-Bangladesh border, the budget for the year 2019-2020 was Rs 407 crore that was decreased to Rs 294 crore in the year 2020-21 but in the year 2021-22 it was marginally increased to Rs 303 crore.

The minister also said that the budget allocation for the year 2019-2020 was Rs 407 crore that was decreased to Rs 294 crore in the year 2020-21 but in the year 2021-22 it was marginally increased to Rs 303 crore.

Responding to a question on steps taken by the government to strengthen the safety of border areas, Rai said that the MHA has adopted a multi-pronged approach to strengthen the security along international borders by deploying adequate numbers of the border guarding force, effective domination of the borders by patrolling, setting up observation posts and new Border Out Posts (BOPs) and holistic review of deployment periodically.