More troops to check Red terror

The Union Home Ministry is planning to help states raise 35 India Reserve Battalions (IRB) and get them to designate some of them as specialised forces trained to crush the Maoist rebellion, reports Aloke Tikku.

Ill-equipped, ill-trained and dejected security personnel fighting Naxalite insurgents may finally get help.

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The Union home ministry is planning to help states raise 35 India Reserve Battalions (IRB) and get them to designate some of them as specialised forces trained to crush the Maoist rebellion — India’s largest and fiercest insurgent movement which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned last week was getting stronger.

A senior home ministry official said the additional paramilitary forces would give state police forces nearly 35,000 more pairs of well-trained hands to stave off the onslaught from naxals and insurgents.

The home ministry will meet the initial cost of raising such battalions. This money, spent on weapons, vehicles and other logistics, will be nearly Rs 12 crore.

States, however, have to meet the recurring expenditure of the battalions that become part of the state police. About a hundred policemen are killed in Naxalite attacks every year in Chhattisgarh alone.More troops to check Red terror