Naveen demands four more CRPF battalions to combat Maoists

Bhubaneswar, Aug 2 (UNI) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today demanded four more battalions of CRPF to combat growing Maoist activities in the state.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, the Chief Minister also demanded to provide a helicopter for rescue and shifting of the injured cops during the anti-Maoist operation.

He said the Maoist attacks were growing in Malkangiri as the geographical location of that district was favourable for carrying out anti-establishment activities.

Recently, 38 Greyhound jawans of Andhra Pradesh and 17 security personnel of the state lost their lives in separate attacks in the district.

Giving a comparative stastics on security arrangement the Chief Minister said while 16 battalions of CRPF and one battalion of Mizo armed police were deployed in Chhatisgarha to combat the insurgency, only four battalions were posted in Orissa.

The security personnel recruited for the recently constituted two India Reseve Battalion and four special security battalions by the state government could not be deployed as their training had not yet been completed, the Chief Minister wrote and demanded the Union government to provide four more CRPF battalions for a year in the state to combat Maoists.

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