NEW DELHI: The Centre has directed country's Anti-Naxal operations force CRPF to reposition itself in Naxal-hit regions of Chhatisgarh in order to tackle the Naxal problem more effectively, directing it to withdraw over 7,000 CRPF personnel from their long drawn deployment in four states re-deploy those security men Chhatisgarh's South Bastar areas.
These armed troops, part of seven battalions, will be withdrawn from West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. According to a recent directive, the Union Home Ministry informed the respective states enumerating that the maximum of three battalions are to be withdrawn from West Bengal, two from Bihar and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
The development comes after the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) made a request to the Centre for more battalions in Chhattisgarh in order to open more bases in the Maoist hotbed in Chhattisgarh. As the biggest Left Wing Extremism (LWE) combat challenge is now in south Bastar, that borders Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, it is required to enhance the number of CRPF boots in these areas, official sources said.
The districts of Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur, Kanker and Kondagaon witness the maximum movement and activity of the armed Maoist cadres and since the last year, the CRPF has begun opening camps in the interior areas to penetrate into the core Naxal areas, they added. A senior CRPF official explained that the LWE theatre in all the states from where the battalions have been ordered to be taken out, except Uttar Pradesh, have seen a marginal dip in the strength and control of Naxals and the forces are now in the dominating position.
Uttar Pradesh has one LWE affected district - Sonebhadra - and the lone CRPF battalion proposed to be taken out from this central Indian state would come from a group centre of the force under which eight-nine battalions operate, he said. These states are the only places from where the CRPF could take out few battalions as there is not much scope to withdraw units from either Jammu and Kashmir or the northeast, the two other internal security theatres where the paramilitary is deployed thickly.
The process of withdrawal of CRPF personnel is likely to begin by month end and their re-deployment in Chhattisgarh to be completed by the year-end, sources said. In its notification, the Home Ministry has asked the Chhattisgarh government to provide "adequate logistics and accommodation" for these new incoming units. At present, CRPF has about 30 battalions deployed in Chhattisgarh.