New Delhi, Nov. 23: A long-standing turf war between the defence and home ministries has ended with the Centre deciding to transfer the entire administrative and functional control of the Assam Rifles to the army and the ministry of defence.

The Assam Rifles will now be withdrawn from the Myanmar border and replaced by the BSF, a paramilitary force under the home ministry. The BSF already guards the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders.

“In principle, this has been cleared and the proposal will go to the Union cabinet now,” BSF director-general Subhash Joshi told The Telegraph today. The proposal will be discussed by the cabinet committee on security.

An additional director-general of the BSF, who had visited some locations along the India-Myanmar border in a helicopter this month, had found the reception from the Assam Rifles cold. Apparently, operational information may not have been forthcoming from the Assam Rifles as it officially remains in charge of the border, sources said.

Earlier this month, a meeting of the committee of secretaries, including cabinet secretary, home secretary and defence secretary, had “resolved” the differences by deciding that the Assam Rifles should be handed over to the ministry of defence.

It will be up to the defence ministry now how to use the country’s oldest paramilitary force. The Assam Rifles is engaged in counter-insurgency operations besides guarding the Myanmar border. The 178-year-old Assam Rifles with 46 battalions is officered by the army but is administratively under the ministry of home affairs. Once the proposal is cleared by the cabinet, the Assam Rifles will also be administrated by the army, the sources said.

When the home ministry had proposed some years ago that the BSF should take control of the 1,643km international border, the army had posed stiff resistance.

Joshi said although the decks are cleared, raising of 40-odd additional battalions of the BSF to guard the Myanmar border will take time. “It will be a phased exercise,” he said.