New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to depute Central Paramilitary Forces to Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Punjab on a priority basis keeping in view the sensitivity of these States and the UT as a pre-poll preparation.
“The deployment will start in Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Punjab. The ministry has also instructed the local governments to facilitate accommodation, transportation and logistics for the forces,” a government official privy to the development told ETV Bharat on Thursday.
The decision to accord priority to these five States and UT was taken in a recent meeting held at the Home Ministry. The meeting, which was chaired by Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, was also attended by senior officials from the Home Ministry, DGs of CRPF, BSF, SSB and several other Central Agencies.
“A decision was taken to depute troops to hyper-sensitive areas, particularly those affected by Maoists and other forms of internal security threat,” the official said. The MHA has allocated 30 companies of Central Armed Police Forces for this purpose to Chhattisgarh as a first measure ahead of upcoming elections.
When asked about the reasons for giving such priority to these states, the official said that their responsibilities will be area domination, sanitisation and engagement with local communities to familiarise themselves with the terrain. “All the local governments concerned have been asked to facilitate accommodation, transportation and logistics to the Central Forces,” the official said.
The main objective of the government is to conduct violence-free elections in J&K, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Punjab where Central Forces face the dual task of maintaining law and order while providing security.
Maintaining law and order in J&K would be a tough task for the Central Forces following the fact that this would be the first major election after the abrogation of Article 370. The drug business as well as Khalistani activities in Punjab could be a major challenge for the security forces, similarly, West Bengal would be another challenge due to the continuous violence and attacks on political leaders of different parties.
Sources said that the Election Commission would convene an urgent meeting with officials from the Home Ministry regarding the deployment of Central Paramilitary Forces in different states and UTs to ensure a peaceful election.
- " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="">
Read more: Create unified communication system in coordination with UP, Haryana: MHA to Delhi Police
