NEW DELHI : Grappling with a high demand for deployment of forces on election duty, CRPF has withdrawn 50 companies from troubled Manipur and decided to relocate its personnel deputed as part of Parliament Duty Group (PDG), besides suspending training modules for its personnel, sources said.
Apart from sending personnel for poll duty, CRPF has the responsibility to provide VIP security cover to an increasing number of personalities.
Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to take place in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will also go for assembly elections.
Sources said despite drawing all the available manpower, CRPF is yet to meet the demand made by the election authorities and also for VIP security. PDG, formed in CRPF to protect the Parliament House, is now being removed and in its place CISF personnel are being deployed. “Relieved personnel of PDG will now be shifted to VIP security wing of CRPF. About 1,600 personnel were kept in this special force, having special commando training,” a CRPF official said.
Quoting an internal communication, sources said the CRPF has postponed its training sessions and is in process of drawing jawans from its central sports teams. “Also, leaves for specific troops will not be approved barring cases of acute emergency,” the official said.
The sources said that for the next two months, the assistant commandant tech course running at Ranchi has been postponed. The assistant commandants, who are undergoing training, will now report to their units for election duties, they added.
Though officials did not reveal the exact number of troops sought by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), they said this time the figure has exceeded the expectations.
It is learnt from the sources that the Election Commission has sought a maximum of 1,020 CAPF companies for West Bengal, followed by 635 in Jammu and Kashmir, which will witness its first Lok Sabha elections after scrapping Article 370.
Besides, 360 companies of CAPFs are sought for deployment in Chhattisgarh; 295 in Bihar; 252 in UP; 250 each in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand; 200 each in Gujarat, Manipur, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu; 175 in Odisha; 160 each in Assam and Telangana; 150 in Maharashtra; 113 in Madhya Pradesh; 100 in Tripura; 95 in Haryana and 75 in Arunachal Pradesh, among others.
188 security personnel airlifted to Kishtwar
A total of 188 security personnel were airlifted by three IAF helicopters to snow-bound Marwah and Warwan areas in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district which is part of the Udhampur parliamentary seat, officials said. Udhampur goes to polls in the first phase of the elections on April 19.