HC restrains Home Ministry from shifting SSB from NE

Imphal, May 10 (PTI): The Gauhati High Court today restrained the Centre from shifting the Special Services Bureau from the North East as proposed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice RS Mongia and Justice IA Ansari, in an order passed on a public interest litigation fixed the case for further hearing on July 16. The petitioner, Jugal Barua, a social activist of Tezpur, has challenged the move of the Union Home Ministry to shift the SSB units along with personnel based in each State of the North East to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The petitioner contended that it will affect the employment opportunities for people living along the border areas besides affecting directly about 30,000 people who are the beneficiaries of the development schemes sponsored by SSB. The SSB was set up after the Chinese aggression in 1962 at the initiative of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The SSB was deployed to check border infiltration, provide vital intelligence inputs from remote areas and sponsoring activities providing social benefits for all round growth of rural population in remote and border areas of the North East.