Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday left Delhi for his two-day visit to Dehradun, during which he will celebrate the New Year with ITBP personnel at India-China border in Nelong Valley in Uttarakhand.
The Minister will spend Sunday evening with the 12th Battalion of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officials at their Headquarters in Matli, at 3,400 feet on the bank of Bhagirathi river, around 195 km from Dehradun.
“Leaving for Dehradun on a two day visit to Uttarakhand. Shall spend today’s (Sunday) evening with 12 Battalion of ITBP jawans at Matli in Uttarkashi district,” Rajnath Singh tweeted.
The Home Minister will visit the Nelong border out post during his two-day visit, an ITBP official said.
The official said the Minister will be with Himveers on January 1 and that it is the first ever visit of any Union Home Minister to forward locations of ITPB in Nelong Valley, a border outpost of ITBP at he height of 11,700 feet where temperature dips to minus 15 degrees Celsius.
It would be the second visit of the Home Minister to India-China border since the resolution of the Doklam standoff.
Rajnath Singh is also expected to review the situation at Nelong Valley and Matli — a regional response centre of the ITBP for countering natural and man-made disasters and which, in 2012 and 2013 when Uttarakhand suffered major tragedies, played a crucial role in relief and rescue operations and helped save thousands of lives.
Raised on October 24, 1962, the ITBP is presently deployed on border guarding duties from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3,488 km of India-China border.