PTI
GURGAON, NOVEMBER 13
The Centre today offered to send additional paramilitary forces to Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand to ensure peaceful polling in the coming Assembly elections if required.“CRPF and state police forces are there and if need arise we will send more forces,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Singh, however, said he believed that elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will be completed peacefully.
Assembly polls in the militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir and Naxal-hit Jharkhand will be held in five phases between November 25 and December 20.
The CRPF has deployed close to 60,000 personnel in Jammu and Kashmir for security duties and in view of the upcoming polls, the central government has sent a total of 381 companies (one company comprises around 100 personnel) of various central forces like BSF, ITBP and CISF.
In Jharkhand, there are close to 25 battalions of CRPF which is currently undertaking operations against Left Wing Extremists, along with some units of other paramilitary forces. Similarly, a total of 136 companies of forces have been asked to report for poll duties in Jharkhand.
In addition, state police forces of both the states will be deployed during the elections.
Rajnath appeals to naxals to shun violence, join mainstream
Making it clear violence has no place in a democracy and that the killing of innocents leads to nowhere, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today asked the Naxals to abjure violence and join the mainstream.
Addressing the 75th raising day of CRPF, Singh said that Mao Zedong’s ideology, which is being followed by the CPI (Maoist) in India, is forgotten even in China, the country where he had founded the Communist state.
“But here (in India) you (Naxals) are killing your innocent countrymen by following that ideology. I would like to appeal to the Naxals to shun violence.
“Our democratic values are very strong. I would like to ask them to change the power through democracy and not by guns,” he said after taking the salute at an impressive parade by CRPF personnel.
Thirty-eight per cent of CRPF’s troops are deployed in the Left-Wing Extremism theatre, the Home Minister said even as he noted that the country’s largest paramilitary force is engaged in many critical areas and that around 80 per cent of its personnel work in high-risk zones.
CRPF not only plays an active role in facing internal security challenges but also provides cover during general elections and hence can be termed ‘loktantra ke prahri’ (soldier of democracy), said Singh.
Remembering the supreme sacrifice made by CRPF jawans in different theatres of operation, Singh said the government recognises the contribution of the force. He also said that government is sensitive to the needs of the paramilitary forces.
“I know CRPF is also fighting proxy war launched against the country and it is very difficult to fight such a war,” he said.
The Home Minister recalled his visit to Saranda jungle in Jharkhand and said that CRPF deserves credit for its ability to work in adverse conditions.
“CRPF works in very hostile conditions but it always completes its assigned task. It has given many an ‘agnipareeksha’ and I can proudly say it has succeeded in all,” he said.
Singh said that top CRPF officers should undertake more tours of their field formations and stand shoulder-to- shoulder with their personnel.
