BENGALURU: Despite local opposition, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has ordered the authorities to shift the Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) range headquarters and group centre, located in Taralu, along Kanakapura Road.
Both the range headquarters and group centre will be shifted to Chandauli distict in Uttar Pradesh — native district of the Union Home Minister Rajanath Singh. The order by the Director General, CRPF, directed officials to shift the headquarters and group centre "on priority to the new location."
The order noted that MHA has conveyed "approval of the competent authority for fresh hiring of private buildings at the following locations for the establishment of Range HQr (headquarter) Taralu (Karnataka) and Group Centre, Taralu (Karnataka) (renamed as DIG Range HQR CRPF Chanduali and Group Centre, CRPF, Chandauli (UP). While both the HQ and group centre are located on government land in Karnataka, the facility will be shifted to private lands in Chandauli.
The order was issued by S K Upadhyay, Deputy Inspector General of CRPF on May 29. As of now, sources said that the HQ and group centre has 500 men and officials in Taralu. The group centre — which was still under formation — was expected to have a total of 8,000 personnel when complete.
“There are five group centres already in Uttar Pradesh – Lucknow, Allahabad, Rampur, Amethi and Noida. Despite this, moving one more centre to UP does not make much sense and no explanations about this decision have been forthcoming from the Union Government,’’ KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao had alleged.
Apart from KPCC, the Kannada Development Authority had also written to MHA, urging him to cancel the order shifting the CRPF range headquarters and group center in Taralu.