The Central and Chhattisgarh Governments are considering a proposal to appoint a retired Major General rank officer as Security Advisor in the naxal-hit State besides a Brigadier and a Colonel for supervising counter-insurgency training to the local police.
The State Government wanted a serving Brigadier to head training but the Army opposed it and said it had no objection to a retired officer selected for the job.
The proposal to appoint a Major General as advisor comes in the backdrop of a Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) decision in 2010 to have a Unified Command structure in all the naxal-violence affected States, including Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar.
The Unified Command on the pattern of such system already working in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam was to be headed by the chief secretaries of respective States. Moreover, the command was to have a retired Major General as a member and the Army at that point of time shortlisted 15 officers.
However, the command proposal could not be implemented due to difference in perception of the States and the Central Government and was placed in cold storage. Surge in Maoist attacks in Chhattisgarh earlier this year, including the killing of former Union Minister VC Shukla, forced the Central and State Governments to revisit the proposal, sources said here on Saturday. While there is still no agreement on having a Unified Command, the Chhattisgarh Government and the Central Governments are considering the option of appointing a Major General as security advisor besides a Brigadier and a Colonel for counter-insurgency operations, they said.
Elaborating upon the envisaged role of the Major General, they said he will advise the State Government on overall strategy of tackling the Naxal menace while the Brigadier and Colonel will be more hands-on.
These two officers with vast experience of operating in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East will finetune the tactical aspect of counter-insurgency, including deployment of forces and their training.
Ministries of Home and Defence, besides the State Government were now examining the nitty-gritty of the proposal after it was revived two months back, officials said adding the review in advanced stage.
As regards objections to spare a serving Brigadier and a Colonel, they said apart from shortage of officers at operational level, the Army also does not want to get involved in operational aspect of fighting the Maoists.
In fact, the Armed Forces has repeatedly said they are there to assist the local Government in training and providing logistical support to security forces but will not get involved in direct combat with the Maoists as it is an internal security situation with socio-political implications.
The Army has so far trained more than 65,000 personnel of central paramilitary forces and police of the naxal-violence-affected States in the last 10 years in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism techniques.
Moreover, a select batch of officers from paramilitary forces and police are attached to the Army units fighting militancy in J&K. This exposure in real situations gives these officers valuable experience and they in turn train personnel of their respective organisations after serving stints in Kashmir, officials said.
The IAF has deployed six MI-17 helicopters in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for providing logistical support like airlifting security forces to combat zone and evacuating casualties. The IAF has also inducted the latest version of the MI-17s which can fly at night thereby providing 24x7 support to ground forces.