Centre to raise 300 battalions to meet manpower shortage in cpos

Bangalore, Jun 8 (UNI) Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today announced that it was proposed to raise an additional 300 battalions of various Central Paramilitary forces.

Speaking at the valedictory of the 37th All India Police Science Congress here, he said forming of additional battalions for the Central forces, including the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was aimed at augmenting the shortage of manpower faced at present.

Besides, the state governments had also been allowed to raise 60-70 Indian Royal (IR) battalions to overcome the shortage of manpower in the respective states, he added.

Mr Patil said the Centre would bear the expenditure for raising the IR initially and the respective state governments should meet the recurring expenditure at the later stages.

Stressing the need for modernisation of the police force in the country, he lamented that some state governments were not utilising the funds provided for modernisation. ''There is no dearth of funds for modernisation, but additional funds will be released only if the states utilise the funds already provided,'' he noted.

Asked about the naxalite menace, he said the Centre had taken concrete steps to curb naxalite activities. In naxalite-infested Chattisgarha and Jharkhand, 36 battalions had been raised to tackle the ultras. These States were also provided with helicopters and modern equipment.

Mr Patil said that based on the recommendations of various committees, several steps were taken to bring in amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Penal Code to give more teeth to the police force.

Karnataka Director General of Police S B Sial said the Congress had recommended to the Centre to increase manpower, provide adequate training to the police force and introduce e-governance in a big way to equip the force with modern technology to tackle increasing cyber crime.

Over 200 police officials from all parts of the country participated in the Congress held in the city after a gap of 16 years.

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