As the country works towards making theatre commands, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have been put entirely under the Lucknow-based Central Command

As the country works towards making theatre commands for enhancing jointness among defence forces for war fighting, the Indian Army has redrawn the boundaries of responsibility along the China border. Now, the states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have been put entirely under the Lucknow-based Central Command.

“The move to redraw the boundaries of the commands will now see that the Western Command would know now not have any responsibility on the China border whereas the Central Command would be responsible for the entire Himachal and Uttarakhand sector along the China border,” top government sources told India Today.

Sources said the move would allow to reduce the number of army commands looking after the China border from four to three; eventually, there will be one theatre command in future to manage the entire area from Himachal Pradesh to Arunachal Pradesh. The Central Army command headed by Lt Gen Y Dimri is conducting the study for the eastern theatre command, planned to be created in the coming years.

The responsibility for the study on the western theatre command has been given to the legendary South Western Army command chief Lt General Amardeep Singh Bhinder. The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh union territories have been kept out of the theatre command ambit due to the sensitivities involved in the process.

The theatre command creation responsibility has been given to the department of military affairs under Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff. He is working towards the better coordination and consultation among the three services.